Bonjour, dear readers. What's up, people? Melody Tremblay-Ibrahim here. I'm a young woman living in the City of Gatineau, Quebec. My friends call me Motor Mouth Mel. I'm five-foot-ten, a bit chubby, with long reddish brown hair, lime-green eyes and alabaster skin. Proudly French Canadian and feisty. Got one hell of a story to share with you. It's not easy being in an interracial relationship in today's world, but my Somali-Canadian Muslim husband Idris Ibrahim and I manage just fine. We are madly in love with each other and we're happy together, in spite of what the haters throw at us.
"Lady, can you stop staring at us and please ring our stuff through?" I said to the chubby old white woman working at the cash register at Walmart. I noticed the old broad looking at Idris and I as we walked into the Walmart, and she pursed her lips in distaste. That's how a lot of old white folks look at interracial couples, especially when said couples involve a black man and a white woman. They don't seem to be as bothered by white male/black female couples. Go figure.
"Mademoiselle, I don't know what you're talking about," the old crone said, and she flashed Idris and I a fake smile as she rang our stuff through. Idris took his RBC debit card out of his well-worn leather wallet, and paid for our groceries. The cashier put our stuff in them gray plastic bags, and we each grabbed a pair. Minutes later, Idris and I pulled out of the Walmart parking lot, and headed home. I was still fuming over that old cashier's behavior. Maybe it's because I'm pregnant and just starting to show, but I really can't suffer fools.
"You were on fire back there, my dear," Idris said, and I briefly took my eyes off the road and flashed my darling husband a smile. I love this man something fierce and I cannot get enough of him. Three years ago, we met at the Rideau Shopping Center in downtown Ottawa. I was new to the City of Ottawa, Ontario, having moved there from my hometown of Longueil, Quebec, to study Nursing at the University of Ottawa. I needed a new cell phone, and walked into the store where Idris happened to work.
"Thanks, mon cheri, I know," I replied, and blew Idris a kiss. From the first time I laid eyes on this six-foot-three, lean and athletic, gorgeously dark-skinned stud from Somalia, I knew that he was something special. A recent graduate of Carleton University's civil engineering programme, Idris Ibrahim was managing a cell phone store inside the Rideau Shopping Center while looking for work in his field at the time we met. Something about his kind eyes, exotic good looks and confident demeanor drew me to him.
When you're from a small, lily-white town in rural Quebec, a place like the City of Ottawa can be a bit daunting. I swear, I'd never seen any black folks or Arabs or Indians until I came to Ottawa. In Quebec, for the most part, minorities stay in places like Montreal and Quebec City. Small-town Quebec tends to be whiter than snow, and a tad bit xenophobic. That's how I used to be, until fate stepped in and changed my world.
When I met my future husband, I was nineteen years old and on my own for the first time. My parents Muriel and Jonathan Tremblay had just gotten a rather nasty divorce. My family is kind of messed up. My parents disowned my older brother Jacques for being gay and he ran off to the City of Montreal with his Asian boyfriend Chan. I was utterly alone in the big city. Yeah, I was going through a lot. Idris became my first friend in Ottawa and later, so much more.