The story of Gloria Shuri Nava and Ali Lawrie goes viral, proves life is full of surprises

Jul 17, 2013 18:26 GMT  ·  By
Gloria Shuri Nava and Ali Lawrie fell in love online, defy society’s idea of how a “normal” couple should look like
   Gloria Shuri Nava and Ali Lawrie fell in love online, defy society’s idea of how a “normal” couple should look like

One month ago, comedienne and blogger Gloria Shuri Nava went public with her amazing love story in an essay for Yahoo! Shine, in which she also talked about the difficulties she had to face since she started dating Ali Lawrie.

Ali, you see, is a gym freak, whereas Gloria is overweight.

Response to her essay was amazing, with many rushing to congratulate her for standing up for her relationship and, in thus doing, telling the world that, where love is concerned, something as superficial as looks doesn’t count.

Unfortunately, not all those commenting had nice things to say, which, in turn, has prompted a response from Ali in the same e-zine.

You can see it in full at the link here and, if you want confirmation that good guys still exist, you should check it out.

Ali begins his essay “My Girlfriend Weighs More Than Me. So What?” by saying his first reaction upon reading the negative comments was to defend Gloria. He was never offended when people picked on him, but he can’t help it where she’s concerned.

He then details how they met online and became good friends, and later fell in love. They hadn’t even met when they realized how badly they had it for each other, he being from Scotland, she from San Francisco.

“While I fell hard for Gloria after getting to know her, I'm not going to lie: I was initially attracted to her because of how she looks. When I came across her picture on Twitter, I was drawn to the shape of her face and her smile – she has such a captivating smile!” Ali writes.

“And her eyes have this amazing sparkle to them. She is just so incredibly beautiful. When people say Gloria's lucky, I say, ‘I'm the luckier one’,” he says.

He doesn’t understand why people find it odd that he, who looks pretty much like an Abercrombie & Fitch model, would date a woman like Gloria. He finds it odd that they find it odd, he writes.

Ali is now looking forward to moving to the US to finish his education. He might even marry Gloria further down the road, though he’s not exactly spelling it out for his readers.

“Now I'm counting the days until I move to California to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Gloria also decided to lose weight and I support her because she wants to and in the long run, it's a good thing for her health. But in terms of our relationship, there's no need for Gloria to become skinny,” he says.

“I've always felt that the best marriages are between people who are best friends. Having that foundation is everything. The advice I give to others is that you should always look for your best friend, because things could flourish and lead to something you might have never expected. It may actually take you by surprise that what you've always looked for might be right in front of you,” Ali concludes his essay by saying.

Gloria’s original essay is here. Below is a video she made based on responses she got from other people in similar situations, i.e. in relationships considered outside the “norm.”

And this ends today’s lesson in true love.