Bella Stevenson is the sort of woman of whom people say "she's had a hard life". That is, until she met Aurel Voiseanu, a Romanian asylum-seeker 16 years her junior, more than two years ago. Since then, she found a new flat, secured work on a FAS scheme to pay for it and generally found a balance which had eluded her. Nothing lasts forever, though, and Ms Stevenson's period of happiness ended abruptly last week when three loud knocks woke the couple early one morning. The immigration police had arrived. Within 36 hours, Mr Voiseanu found himself back on Romanian soil for the first time in three years.
"They told him to pack his bags and said `you won't be back'. I said we were due to be married next week but they said `that's nothing to do with us'," Ms Stevenson recalls. "In the afternoon, I brought him his glasses to Mount joy and I was told it would be Thursday before arrangements could be made to deport him, but the next morning he was gone. They didn't even give me the courtesy of saying goodbye."
Times are hard in Romania. In Bucharest, Mr Voiseanu had to sell his engagement ring to buy food. Ms Stevenson rings him nightly but the cost is more than a part-time swimming-pool attendant can afford.
Last Thursday - two days after the deportation - Ms Stevenson's divorce came through, leaving her free to remarry. However, it isn't clear whether Mr Voiseanu would be allowed to come back to live in Ireland even if the pair married in Romania.
They make an unlikely couple. He calls her "Mammy" - she is a 50-year-old with seven grown-up children and nine grandchildren and he is 34. She calls him "John" because it's easier to say.
He sought asylum here in 1995 on political grounds. Ms Stevenson is vague about the details, but she thinks he was arrested for involvement in political riots during the Ceausescuera.
To people who try to claim theirs is an arranged marriage, Ms Stevenson says simply that "John" is the man she loves. "As for Aurel, if he wanted to marry just for residency, he could have picked a younger woman. I'm 50 years of age; I'll say it myself, I've passed my sell-by date."
The Department of Justice rejected Mr Voiseanu's appeal in June and a deportation notice was issued shortly afterwards. His chances of staying in Ireland were dealt a severe blow when he was convicted of drink-driving a few months ago.
The Department says a warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to turn up in court, but Ms Stevenson maintains she rang the court beforehand to say her partner was ill and could not attend.
Ms Stevenson says she has written to the Department on a number of occasions to make their case but has not received any reply. Only through the intervention of her local TD, Liz McManus, could she establish where the case stood.
"I used to have faith in Irish justice; I considered it fair and honest. Now I don't know. I'm not saying that all the asylum-seekers who come here are perfect but, considering the small number involved, it's a damned disgrace the way they're dealt with."
Ms Stevenson met her solicitor yesterday to decide on what to do. A wedding in Romania seems the only option now, though she doesn't have the money to get there, "but I told the Department we were going to be married whether Aurel was deported or not. And we will."