Newlyweds mark one-week anniversary at shoot

Fort Worth newlywed couple David and Kelley Keller found love in a roundabout way. They met 17 years ago when they were both working at a Fort Worth hospital, she an RN and he doing anesthesiology checks; and were truly just friends. They also attended the same church.

“We’ve stayed friends ever since,” he said.

“We had kids that were in Confirmation at the same time,” she said. “He was friends of my family, my husband and the kids.”

Later David moved to Kansas and worked on aircraft.

In the meantime, Kelley’s husband developed a prolonged illness and passed away three years ago.

“Through his illness and after his death, David has been the person that every Tuesday night after NCIS (the TV series), he’d call to see how things were going. It just kind of blossomed from there. The calls became twice a week, then three times a week. Finally we discovered that maybe God puts people in your life for a reason, and maybe you ought to listen to Him.”

“And we did,” he said.

“We did,” she echoed.

Their conversation had been friends-only for so long, until it all changed.

David got furloughed a few months ago and planned to return to Fort Worth to be near his son.

“One day,” Kelley said, “I had started out to walk the dog, and he called. We were just chatting away and he said, ‘Well, you know, it’s going to be nice to be near friends who give you a hug once in a while and say they love you.’

The couple arranged to get married at the church she had been attending and David used to attend.

“That was something that was important to both of us,” she said, “that we be married in the church by our pastor, because those vows are sacred. They mean something.

“I always knew she loved me as a friend,” David said, “and I loved her as a friend. The loneliness of getting quarantined, that can wear on you.

“It was right; it was just the right time; thank God for COVID,” she said breaking into laughter. “And that was it; it was a done deal.”

“I figured we’d better spend some time together,” he said, “and here we are. It’s like marrying my best friend.”

“That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?” she said.

“And I said, ‘OK, it’s time for confession,’ she said. “So I told him, ‘I love you, too.’ That was in June, and he moved here Aug. 1. It’s pretty sweet.”