Join us in Savannah

Think back, if you will, to February 2020, a time when life was "normal." People were flying in airplanes, eating inside restaurants, hugging loved ones and (hard to believe now) attending live concerts and sports events! Shelby and Kerry were leading full and busy lives in Bradenton, Florida, until one day everything changed. An evil virus spread throughout the world causing life as we once knew it to cease. Shelby started working from home and she had almost no physical contact with the outside world. On March 27 she checked her inbox on the dating website Hinge, and to her surprise there was a message from a VERY handsome man named Kerry. Shelby answered his message right away and so their pandemic love story began. Over the first week, Kerry and Shelby had two- to three-hour "virtual" dates on FaceTime because the outside world was too scary. One day, Kerry delivered a gift of dinner, wine, flowers and hand sanitizer to Shelby's condo (hand sanitizer was very valuable then, so she knew he really cared!). The virtual dates continued for seven days, and on the eighth day they agreed to meet in person. At the time everything but grocery stores was closed, so Kerry asked Shelby to meet him on a pedestrian bridge to watch the sunrise. The pair met as planned and their 30-minute meet-and-greet turned into a three-hour walk-and-talk! They soon learned that relationships move quickly in a pandemic, a time when they were forced to think creatively about dating. They were uncomfortable associating with anyone but each other. They quickly fell in love and together they endured all the challenges that 2020 threw their way. Kerry comforted Shelby though a painful root canal and he supported her when her father's health began to decline. Shelby held Kerry up when his father suddenly passed away and she nursed him back to health when he fell ill with COVID-19. Falling in love during a pandemic is never ideal, but it is our story and it brought us to this day.