A love story in search of votes

A love story in search of votes

By KEN SUGIURA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/05/08

Eric Gray said he knew in his heart he would marry Keyana Carlisle.

That, however, was before she woke up in her hospital bed and asked him who he was.

They say that a high fever wiped out much of her memory.

"It's sad to say this, but it's like she died," said Gray, an Atlantan and Morehouse College graduate.

We'll give away the ending. Gray, 30, and Carlisle, 27, of Union City, are engaged. They are, in fact, caught up in a bridal magazine's competition to be named "America's Favorite Couple."

The steps of their journey defy belief.

Said Shelia Carlisle, Keyana's mother, "It doesn't sound real, but it's so real."

Gray and Carlisle met in 2000 at a Midtown kidney dialysis clinic. They had both been diagnosed in their teens with end-stage kidney disease. Both had had kidney transplants that failed, and needed thrice-weekly dialysis treatments.

Eric liked how Keyana laughed big, her head reared back and mouth wide open.

"It's kind of like a Pez dispenser," he said.

They became friends, sharing their complications with their disease and learning they laughed at the same quirky things.

The very next day after their first date, in January 2001, Gray broke his hip and shoulder after suffering a seizure and falling. Though they were just one date in, Carlisle helped him through his rehabilitation.

"Dialysis patients take care of each other," she said.

They went go-karting and watched movies. Carlisle, an aspiring chef, cooked for Gray, maneuvering the menu around her boyfriend's picky tastes.

Staci Corbett, close friends with Gray since they tutored high school students together in college, saw it coming.

"She was the first one that I have known him to say, 'OK, this is my girlfriend. I'm not dating anybody else,' " she said.

In October 2003, Carlisle was admitted to Emory University Hospital with chest and abdominal pains. There, Gray and Carlisle say, she caught an infection from an IV, and her temperature spiked. She lost consciousness for five minutes, they say, and when she came to, she didn't recognize her own mother, let alone Gray.

(Citing patient confidentiality, an Emory Hospital spokesman declined comment. Family members and friends attest to the memory loss.)

Gray said he never considered leaving Carlisle, even with no certainty of a romantic relationship.

Said Gray, "That woman is my heart."

Gray and her mother showed her old pictures. Gray took her on past dates, hoping to bring back her past. Bit by bit, some memories returned.

She said seeing a commercial for the game Twister brought back a childhood memory that finally confirmed for her that the woman she had been calling Miss Shelia was in fact her mother.

No spark like that occurred for Gray, she said, but over time, he won her over again. In 2005, about a year and a half after the memory loss, they shared their second first kiss.

"I would say, 'Thank God for men like him,' " Shelia Carlisle said. "Because he hung in there."

They were engaged November 2006 at Centennial Olympic Park, at the end of a day in which Gray had convinced her she had won a "Queen for a Day" contest, complete with a spa treatment and photo shoot.

Their story earned them a nomination for a contest on Bridal Guide magazine's Web site. The winner's prize: a wedding worth $87,000.

The voting ends today, and the couple and their friends have furiously campaigned, passing out fliers and sending out e-mails.

Carlisle and Gray, who undergo dialysis six times a week, are hoping for kidney transplants. They talk about opening their own dialysis clinic. Gray, who's preparing for medical school admissions testing, often offers advice and encouragement to patients at the clinic where he's a patient.

Corbett, one voter firmly in their corner, calls theirs "the greatest story I've ever heard."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/living/stories/2008/03/05/couple_0305.html