How we met: ‘I’d been out as gay for a long time, but I thought Imogen was straight’

Aine, 26, and Imogen, 29, became friends at a bellringing group in 2019. They fell in love after the first lockdown and live in London with their two cats

In 2019, Imogen was working as a freelance musician and studying sound art when she stumbled on a new hobby. “I was inspired to try out bellringing after speaking to a friend,” she says. “I didn’t have any expectations, but I was really interested in the bells and wanted to see what it was like.”

In September, she went to a church in Hackney, London, to join a local bellringing group. She followed the spiral staircase to the bell tower, where people were gathered in different patterns. There, she spotted Aine, who had been taking part for several years. “It’s mostly older people, so you notice when someone younger comes in,” says Aine. “Because it can get quite crowded in the tower, you end up perched on the edges. When Imogen arrived, I accidentally dropped my water on her, which was embarrassing. Luckily, it broke the ice.”

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* This article was originally published here