One couple met as lab partners. Another hit it off during an interview. For some, it was even love at first sight. "The rest was history," recalled several USA College of Medicine alumni who answered the call to tell how they discovered romance in the middle of medical school classes, study groups, clerkships and social activities.
These are their stories, just in time for Valentine’s Day:
Susan Jones Ashbee '77 and Stewart Ashbee '77 "Stewart and I were married on May 7, 1977, after semi-secretly dating for 2 1/2 years. I think we were the first marriage for the COM. We had two beautiful children and our 26 years of marriage was truly a blessing. Even though our time together was cut short, he will always have my heart."
Michael Hennigan '82 and Pam Hennigan
"Pam and I met over lunch at the Baptist Student Union after another student invited me to join him for lunch there. It has now been 42-plus years and counting."
"George and I met during our first year of medical school at USA COM. We sat next to each other from day one and became study buddies our first year of school. Our first official date was Skit Night of 1987, and we have been together ever since. We decided to go through the couples match our senior year (even though we weren't even engaged yet) and ended up in Birmingham. George matched at Carraway for OB-GYN, and I matched at UAB for anesthesiology. We were engaged on Christmas Eve of our internship year and got married at the end of our internship. We will be celebrating our 31st anniversary this year and have three wonderful children, one of whom is a third-year medical student at USA COM. She is also interested in OB-GYN like her dad. I preface each card and letter to my husband with, ‘To the love of my life and the father of my children,’ and we are blessed and grateful to have met each other and to have formed such tight bonds as medical students at USA COM."
Lynn Arnold Batten '93 and Dean Batten '93 "Dean sat behind me during the first year of med school, and we were anatomy lab partners since that was alphabetical (Arnold and Batten). We started dating our second year, and the sweetest thing he ever did was bring me takeout dinner from PoFolks restaurant strapped to the back of his motorcycle when I was working the overnight shift in the morgue at the Med Center. Romantic! He and another male classmate wore their long hair in ponytails when we started going to the hospital, but during a tour of the ER, somebody yelled, 'Cut your hair!' at them, so that was the end of that. We were engaged just before signing up for the couples match (radiology and peds) and were married during our intern year. Allegedly, our class of '93 had the highest number of couples participating in the match up to that time for USA!"
"I was a resident in the internal medicine and pediatrics departments from 1997 to 2001. I met my wife, Angela, as a second-year resident in 1998. She was a nurse in the emergency department at the Medical Center. We were married in 1999 at Fairhope Park and have been going strong ever since. The interesting part of the story is that we met while we were both caring for a critically ill patient that came into the ER and, after that, the rest was history!"
Romsel Ang '01 and Brandon Mark Peters '01"Brandon and I met during medical school. We were friends most of our first and second year of medical school. We just found ourselves studying together more, and slowly a relationship developed. We now have four children: Dylan, 17; Madison, 16; Carter, 11; and Sairra Ang, 6. We have one rescue dog and nine chickens. We live in Saraland. Brandon is a diagnostic radiologist and nuclear medicine physician with Alabama Coastal Radiology. I currently work in internal medicine at USA Health Mobile Diagnostic Center. I also serve on the USA Medical Alumni Association Board."
"My husband, James Towner, and I met at USA COM – both Class of 2014! We were in the same Gross Anatomy group and started studying together. He asked me to the Asclepian Ball, and the rest is history. We couples matched in OB-GYN (me) and neurosurgery (him) to the University of Rochester. We have since moved to Chicago, where I am completing a GYN oncology fellowship at Northwestern and he is working as a neurosurgery attending at Cook County Hospital. We have two children, Rose and Atticus. All thanks to USA COM."
Cole Bahakel '16 and Hannah Kinard Bahakel '17"My wife and I met at her medical school orientation. She took my breath away, and I rendered her speechless. It turns out she had recently had her tonsils removed so it wasn’t all me, but I like to think I made a small contribution. After a few dates that didn’t go as planned, we kept seeing each other and knew it was meant to be. We were married in 2018 and have continued our medical training in pediatric infectious disease and interventional radiology."
"While I was rotating through my third-year pediatric clerkship, I ran into Awab Ibrahim (who was a third-year pediatric resident at the time) in the hallway during rounds. It was love at first sight. He ultimately asked me out to lunch after my clerkship ended. Fast forward nine months, he proposed on the Fairhope pier, and we got married shortly after. We are forever thankful to South Alabama for bringing us together."
Ben McCormick '20 and Lane McLendon '21Ben McCormick and Lane McLendon first met at Lane’s USA COM interview day in 2017. Ben was class president and talked with Lane throughout her interview lunch. Upon starting medical school that fall, Lane sent Ben an email asking if they could meet after class to talk about the responsibilities of class president. Ben’s response: "Why don’t we meet for dinner instead?" The rest is history. Ben proposed two days after Lane’s medical school graduation, and the two plan to marry in May 2023. Ben is an internal medicine resident at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and Lane is a pediatrics resident at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
