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A love like no other
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Mary Fualaau, suburban mom and registered sex offender, is piecing together a normal life with the husband who was once considered her victim. The next step: finding work. 22-year-old Vili, a talented artist since childhood, is considering employment at a tattoo parlor.
Here he is practicing his craft on a grapefruit.
Vili Fualaau: I know how to draw. So it’s pretty easy. It’s just that I’m not used to a vibrating pen.
Mary, now 44, surprised us with her career plans—she says she wants to go back to teaching.
Josh Mankiewicz, Dateline correspondent: Can you become a teacher again?
Mary Fualaau: Well, I am a teacher. I just don’t have my Washington state license anymore.
Because of her conviction, Mary will never be able to teach in public school again, but she says she hopes to get a job teaching math at a private school or community college.
But even as they look to the future, Mary and Vili acknowledge it’s not easy shedding a past that so many have found so disturbing for so long.
Mary Fualaau: Every time my name comes up, a mug shot, boom, boom, boom. You know, just at large. You know, and zoom into the eyes.
But can new images replace the old ones? Can a love that just about everyone agrees was wrong at the start age into something acceptable, even beautiful? To some, theirs will forever be a tainted, even deviant relationship. But Mary and Vili see themselves in very different terms—a triumph of love against the odds.
Mankiewicz: You were locked up. And you waited for her.
Vili Fualaau: Yeah.
Mankiewicz: Ever a doubt in your mind about that?
Vili Fualaau: Waiting? No.
Mankiewicz: Most young men wanna go out and experience the world, meet a bunch of different girls.
Vili Fualaau: I’ve had my experience. And you know, and I got that. I got that experiment. And personally, it makes me love her even more today, now, you know, that I’ve had an experiment.
And you know, I just, makes you even more sure that she’s the one for me.
Mary says Vili has been the one for her too, ever since he finished up his sixth grade year.
Mary Fualaau: I didn’t want to lose him as a friend. I wanted him as my friend forever. Cause we just got along so well. And he wanted forever in a different way. So, and then he just pretty much swept me up. And anyway.
Mankiewicz: And you’re tearing up now?
Mary Fualaau: Yep. Got my friend forever, huh?
Mankiewicz: I gotta ask this. You ready for when you’re 45 and she’s-- 67?
Vili Fualaau: Yes.
Mary Fualaau: 66. (overtalk)
Vili Fualaau: I wonder who’s gonna be in a wheelchair first. You or me? Because I got a bad back at an early age. I have a really bad back.
Mary Fualaau: Hmm.
Vili Fualaau: You might just go out, legs go out, and you have to be pushing me around.
But they say they’re much more focused on the here and now—spending precious time with each other, their two kids, and maybe, one more.
Mankiewicz: You guys gonna have another baby?
Vili Fualaau: Trying to.
Mary Fualaau: Everybody hopes. Yeah. We would love to. So—
Mankiewicz: But nothing you wanna like share with us right now? No news?
Mary Fualaau: We would love to. Don’t look so close. I have a feeling like the camera’s zooming in on me. (laughs.) No, nothing.
Mankiewicz: Nothing yet?
Mary Fualaau: No. Not that I know of.
They have another project underway, too. Mary Fualaau, the teacher once known as Mary Kay Letourneau, is of course writing a book. It’s the story of their lives.
Mary Fualaau: It’s not really about, “Gee, how much we love each other,” and what, you know, all the passion that we had. It’s about a family that was shattered. And we’ve come back together. And, sigh, we’re so happy.
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