2025 Love List

Lili Hernandez & Ashley Hiebing, Madison, 9 years
Shammara McMullin & Ziggy Odogun-Williams, Madison, 3 years
DJ Nichols & Lee Stratton, Oshkosh, 9 years
Danny Atwater & Sid Richards, Madison, 6.5 years
Mandy & Mel Smith-Tourville & Sarah Barkdull, Menomonie, 20 Years & 1 Year

Like so many love stories in recent years, we met on an app. Tinder, to be specific. DJ was visiting Chicago from Kentucky in 2015, where he had just finished law school and had to use-it-or-lose-it the rest of his PTO. Lee was in his first year of general surgery residency. We (DJ, from his best friend’s pull-out couch, and Lee, in a hospital call room while working nights) swiped right on each other, called each other charming, and agreed to meet for a Tuesday morning breakfast before DJ left town.

After almost canceling the date after DJ’s late night at Musical Monday at Sidetrack, we split the breakfast special (a French toast flight), Lee drove DJ back to his friend’s house, and DJ attempted to kiss Lee on the cheek to say goodbye (Lee turned his head to go in for a kiss on the lips, resulting in DJ kissing Lee right in the eye).

Six months later, after many respective trips to Kentucky and Illinois, DJ moved to Chicago for work. We lived separately and agreed there were no promises of forever with the move—long distance to short distance was going to be an adjustment, so we wanted to make sure we liked each other more than just texts and weekend visits. We did.

Fast forward through moving in together, a two-year, long-distance stint while Lee finished his residency in North Carolina (UNC-Chapel Hill), the adoption of our first dog (Karen), Lee’s endocrine surgery fellowship (University of Chicago), a pandemic-informed move to a Wisconsin lake house (Oshkosh), and the adoption of our second dog (Benji), we were married in 2022. Given that our first date involved sharing French toast, we thought it was only fitting that we share a French toast (champagne this time) for our wedding, and we were married near Bordeaux, with 50 of our closest friends doing—as Britney directed: partying in France.

We’ve been to 20 countries together, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, walked the Great Wall of China, swam with whale sharks in the Philippines, partied with Olympians at the Olympics, and wore lederhosen in Munich, all while making friends all over the world. We are always on the go, whether it’s Southern Decadence in New Orleans, a night out in New York City, or making last-minute New Year’s Eve plans in Amsterdam.

In our almost-decade together, we have pushed each other to be our best selves, depending on each other’s strengths to make up for our own short-comings, talking through disagreements while also standing up for ourselves, and making sure we laugh more than we do anything else. No relationship is perfect, and all of them take work (see Britney reference above), but we are stronger together than the sum of our parts, and that’s how love is supposed to work.