It was initially reported that the first same-sex couples to wed after Australia legalized gay marriage last year did so on Dec. 16—but it has now been revealed that Jo Grant and Jill Kindt were actually the first couple to marry under the new legislation, on Dec. 15. Grant was receiving palliative care for cancer at the time, and Queensland's state attorney general says officials went to "extraordinary lengths" to make sure the couple was granted a waiver to skip the official 30-day waiting period most couples in the country had to undergo, with one official staffer driving 60 miles to deliver necessary paperwork to the couple. Their marriage was approved, they were married in their garden, and registered all within a day; it was just six days after same-sex marriage became legal. Grant died Jan. 30, the BBC reports.
"Jo and I got to be legally married for 48 days—I'll take that," says Kindt. The couple had been together eight years, and considered themselves married ever since a 2013 commitment ceremony. "I know there are other couples that were married that weekend, and for different reasons. They are among the first … and the reason we did is a tremendously sad one, and I'd trade everything for not having to stand here and talk about this story," said the attorney general when revealing the historic marriage to Queensland's parliament, per ABC. "I'm glad the story's been told for Jo, and I loved hearing her name being said in Parliament today," said Kindt, adding that the wedding "was great, it was really good. It was legal … Jo very much wanted it to happen, as I did." (More same-sex marriage stories.)
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