JR Foley and Celia Walsh, who met each other at the Norwell non-profit Friendship Home.Photo: Brooke McCarthy/WBZ NewsRadio
NORWELL, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Friendship Home in Norwell is just that: a place for learning skills and making friends. Or, in the case of two lovebirds who go there, more-than-friends. The non-profit caters to people with developmental disabilities and was founded in 1999.
Celia Walsh first met JR Foley while working as a tour guide at Friendship home in 2012.
"I said to my mom, 'He probably has a girlfriend,"' she said. But he didn't. After years of friendship, the couple has been dating since 2019. They never miss a single Friday-night Facetime call, and Celia calls JR her "Prince Charming."
Friendship Home runs programs to help people with developmental disabilities engage with each other and society, including a "Bridges to Work" program. JR credits the non-profit with helping him get the confidence he needed to start dating Celia.
"Friendship Home kind of gave me the oomph to take it up a notch," he said. Both JR and Celia stressed that people with disabilities can lead strong love lives.
"We're just like everybody else, we want to be in relationships," Walsh said. "No matter what your circumstances are, you can do anything and be anything you want to be, too," JR added.
WBZ's Brooke McCarthy (@BrookeWBZ) spoke to the couple:
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