Also, my husband is from Long Island, and he insists these words are all pronounced differently: merry, marry, and Mary. For me they are all pronounced the same. When he says them, they do sound slightly different. He can tell which one I mean based on context.
It’s a funny thing, but we just agree to disagree on this.
“Merry” and “marry” are different sounds to me. But when you put “Mary” into the mix it gets me confused, and I think maybe they are the same after all.