The constant reminders are all around Michele Hobbs' Prospect Hill home — a puppy named Leo, a half-finished garden. Lucy's room is still just the way she left it, the fish she caught in a neighbor's pond still in the fishbowl. At times, says Hobbs, it's overwhelming.  

A local child custody battle involving a same-sex couple that could establish an important legal precedent is headed to the Ohio Supreme Court. The case involving former partners Michele Hobbs and Kelly Mullen about access to their 4-year-old daughter Lucy was featured in a recent CityBeat cover story.  

For Michele Hobbs, the situation is tragically simple: Somewhere in Cincinnati is a 4-year-old girl named Lucy, whom she helped raise for two years and loves as her daughter. Because she isn't biologically related to Lucy, the courts have ruled that Hobbs has no legal right to see her. But love isn't so easily thwarted.