The value of a marriage certificate for same sex families is being brought into heartbreaking clarity in a letter by a woman whose wife died unexpectedly.
Lara Ryan has penned a touching message describing the additional anguish caused during the already traumatic aftermath of her wife's death in a pedestrian accident.
In the post, she said the absence of a marriage certificate made paperwork to secure her family's future "ridiculous" but the desire to be legally married went beyond bureaucracy.
"And most of all because I love her, and she has been my every day for ten years, She is the mother of our two girls, she is the future I dreamed of and she is my safe place to land.
"Because love is love and we should celebrate it and encourage it always.
"The world is harsh enough."