Dottie Fideli went viral when she married herself. There's much more to her story.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli is no stranger on Easter to whipping out her bunny costume, one of her many festive get-ups. Field trips to the neighborhood bar are never complete without her dancing on top of the counter. Picture her cruising in her prized Volkswagen Beetle, adorned with giant eyelashes fastened to the headlights in the summertime.

There's never a dull moment at O'Bannon Terrace Retirement Community in Goshen with 77-year-old Fideli around.

Many are amused by Fideli's trademark shenanigans. Her vibrant exterior is what she's known for. If you really get to know Fideli, though, you'd be surprised to learn she has only recently started to do something most of us take for granted: read.

It's just one reason she hasn't always loved herself. But it's a skill she was determined to conquer on her own.

"I said, 'Lord, give me the strength. I can't give up. I can't give up,'" she said of learning to read. "To me, it was just like setting me out in an expressway and standing there. I didn't know which way to go."

She moved forward. And to mark her success, on May 13, Fideli decided to take the plunge in a personal experience that has become an international sensation: a marriage ceremony, in which she made vows to herself in a celebration of self-love.

That's when Fideli's story went viral.

A widely circulated local news report on the marriage ceremony made way for thousands of news organizations across the world calling the retirement home to request interviews. She's been featured on the "Today" show, in the New York Post, on CBS News and more.

She is known for marrying herself, but there's so much more to her story than that, said Rob Geiger, retirement home manager and Fideli's wedding officiant.

"Knowing Dottie and seeing her vivaciousness, her shenanigans – there's also the other side of Dottie where she's very loving, very caring, and she's always thinking about someone else," he said.

The deeper story behind the Goshen woman who went viral

Everyone has a funny story about Fideli. But she has quite a few stories to tell herself.

She grew up on Broadway in downtown Cincinnati, a poor neighborhood then known as "the Bottoms." She practiced dancing, acting and singing, hoping to make it to Hollywood someday. She left school in eighth grade and later started a housekeeping business after a nine-year marriage and having three children.

Being a single mother was tough, she acknowledged, but the kids had plenty of memories of their super mom who was always causing a ruckus in Milford, where the family settled after the divorce.

Remember the Big Boy statue that was stolen from the Milford Frisch's in the early 1980s? That was Fideli. A sighting on Ohio 28 of a Volkswagen Beetle with a mattress or oversize Christmas tree hanging out the back? It was probably her.

In other words, she said, "I've always got a fly up my a--."

She says her word-of-mouth housekeeping business extended to Cincinnati elite clientele, like former Cincinnati Reds player Johnny Bench, controversial figure and philanthropist Marge Schott, and an heir to the prominent Fisher family of the Detroit automobile industry.

She often brings others joy, but she doesn't get along with everyone. Depression hit, too, and the jokester persona was often a front, said Donna Pennington, Fideli's daughter.

"There are so many funny stories, because she’s all about living in the moment – not worrying about what people think about her. Deep down, she did, though," Pennington said.

Pennington said she and her siblings stepped up after the divorce at a young age to help their mother. As the children grew, she said her mother felt insecurity surrounding her inability to read – being unable to pay a bill, go to the grocery store or send someone a handwritten card.

"I was always down on myself, because I didn't like myself. I was afraid what everyone else would think," Fideli said. "I thought I was a dummy. I thought I would never be able to do anything – to read, to have a normal adult conversation with somebody. I felt terrible."

Things began to change, though, when at age 74, she took her first crack at reading.

Empowered by reading, finding self-love

In the beginning, one or two pages felt like a marathon. She'd practice reading aloud in her apartment into the late hours. Word by word, letter by letter, she'd sound it out aloud. (Sometimes a little too loudly, waking up residents.)

She decided to stop caring what people thought. It was her time to show those who doubted her what she could do.

"I was tired of getting kicked around," she said. "No one else can do this but me. I have to see that I can be just like everybody else – pick up a book and read it, pay a bill, go to the grocery store. I can do this."

She didn't start with Dr. Seuss or "See Spot Run." She first picked up the bigger books, particularly those about Cincinnati history. It took months, but one day, she surprised everyone when she pulled out a book and began reading aloud.

A few years after she began her journey to literacy, she tackled her first book. Fideli attributes much of her newfound faith and persistence to returning to church for the first time since she got married.

"It was not an overnight thing," Geiger said. "The biggest thing for Dottie was saying, I'm not going to let other people rule my life."

With newfound confidence, she got a wedding dress to flaunt up and down the halls of O'Bannon Terrace. It's similar to getting dressed up on other holidays and occasions, but this time was different. A lace wedding gown from her favorite store, Goodwill, a wedding cake-cutting, a wedding registry, an officiant in Geiger – the whole shebang.

"She just decided she’s OK. She doesn’t have to be anything more than she is, she loves herself and her life, she’s starting to feel more confident and secure, and feels she has better self-worth," Pennington said of her mother. "She’s feeling more independent in her 70s, where some people feel that way in her 20s."

When her story got out on the internet? "It was nuts," Pennington said. The search term "Dottie Fideli" yields thousands of results internationally about Fideli's wedding.

Now, Fideli said she's not letting anyone rule her life. And she has the rest of that time to spend with her true love: herself.

"I thought, 'Ya know, Dot. You're 76 years old. You've got to get out there,'" she said. "I felt like nobody could take my joy."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Goshen woman, 77, marries herself after finding self-love