6 heartwarming alumni love stories

Abhas Gupta, M.D. ’02 and Shaily Kapur Gupta ’04

“We first met through the South Asian Student Association at Brown. A few years later, when we were both living in New York, Shaily sent out an email inviting everyone to her birthday party. I thought it would be hilarious to reply-all with "Unsubscribe," but she didn’t find it nearly as funny. Months passed, and we both independently joined the Brown Alumni Softball team. Initially, Shaily gave me the cold shoulder, still holding a grudge over the birthday email incident. However, over time, her icy reception began to thaw—fueled by plenty of left-field/third-base banter—and before long, Shaily was emailing me midday to strategize about the evening's lineup. I had never met anyone so invested in recreational softball and found it both amusing and endearing. Fast forward to today: we’re happily married with two children, and we even work together!” 

—Abhas Gupta

Caroline Deitch ’20 and Jake Polinsky ’20

“Jake and I first met freshman year during Spring Weekend 2017 when a mutual friend brought him over to a friend’s dorm room. We didn’t reconnect again until summer 2018 when a friend brought Jake with him for dinner at my apartment. We started dating that summer while interning in DC. When we graduated in 2020, Jake was off to law school in Minnesota and I was headed to New York. We weren’t so sure about a long distance relationship and decided to go our separate ways, but we were pretty terrible at being apart. We talked almost every day during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Eventually we got back together and moved in. On a visit to Providence this past September, Jake took me on a walk around campus and proposed in front of the Van Wickle Gates! We can’t wait to get back to Rhode Island for our 5-year Reunion this year and our wedding next year!” 

—Caroline Deitch

Scott Westerfield ’79 and Ed Miskevich ’79

“Ed and I first met during our senior year at Brown in the fall of 1978. I had decided to take the big step of coming out, so the first week back on campus, I gathered up my courage and went to the tiny Gay Students Association office in Faunce House for Open House. I remember little about who else was there, but I remember one person, its president, Ed. Two months later we were an item. Two careers, 3,000 miles, decades of activism and 46 years later, we still are.” 

—Scott Westerfield

Kai-Ching Cha ’92 and Erik Nelson ’92

“We met in the spring of our freshman year. I was eating spaghetti dinner with Amy Armstrong Lowell ’92, my buddy from the Pembroke dorms. Erik walked up and set his tray across the table from us—he and Amy had grown up in Berkeley together—and started eating. Halfway through dinner, Erik found a red spot on his blue shirt, and he dabbed at it with a wet napkin. Then he found another spot, and another. He meticulously attacked them all, until he looked up, polka-dotted by splotches of water but smiling at his successful stain prevention. And here we are, years later, our kids howling ‘Mama! How could you marry such a messy eater!’” 

—Kai-Ching Cha

Taryn Mackenzie Williams ’02 and Reginald D. Williams II ’02

“We first met at the Third World Transition Program’s ice cream social during our first year. But we didn’t start dating until the summer before our junior year after discovering we were both staying in Rhode Island to work and take classes. Our first date was watching the 2000 NBA Finals, which featured Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s Lakers against the Indiana Pacers, with memorable performances by Reggie Miller and Jalen Rose. We currently live in Washington, D.C., love to travel, visit museums, and do our best to make it to NBA games during the season.”

—Taryn Mackenzie Williams 

Sheryl Jacobs ’79 and Steve Shorofsky ’78

“I was a psychology major taking a neurobiology class along with a friend of mine. Whenever we didn’t understand something, we would call up her friend Steve with questions and he would explain it to us. He was really smart and kind. Although we knew of each other, Steve and I didn’t officially meet until we both attended a friend's birthday party in October 1977 during my junior year. We saw the movie “Swept Away” on campus for our first date and we have been together ever since. We had a lot of library dates and loved to cook together in his dorm at Young Orchard. We were also together during the Blizzard of ’78. By my senior year of college, we were engaged and that wasn’t the norm at the time. My professors wanted me to go to a very research-oriented child development program, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to work with families. I decided that I would move to Chicago with Steve, who was going to medical school there. He chose Chicago because he knew that I would be able to pursue my career there, too. We celebrated our 45th anniversary in December 2024. I think it worked out for us because we were both supportive of each other.” 

—Sheryl Jacobs