After 30 years, a joyous reunion for high school sweethearts

Colleen Uhlein & Keith Latchum

Oct. 15, 2022, in Royersford, Pa.

There she was again, the girl that Keith had first seen days earlier with the afternoon sunlight glinting off her braces in an otherwise empty Cardinal Dougherty High School hallway. This time, she was in the cheerleader tryouts line.

“Who’s that girl over there?” he asked his freshman football teammate. “That’s Colleen Uhlein,” said his friend. “I went to grade school with her. I’ll introduce you.”

Colleen, who turned 15 that very day, knew nothing about him, but she thought he was cute and really liked that he had made an effort to talk to her.

Keith got right to it: “Do you want to go out with me on Friday?”

“I’m celebrating my birthday that day,” Colleen said. “Happy birthday,” said Keith. “How about Saturday?”

By the time he went to football practice and she returned her attention to tryouts on that October afternoon in 1983, they had plans to see a movie on Saturday and attend the homecoming dance a few weeks later.

Keith, who lived in Lawncrest, rode his bike to Colleen’s house in Olney and they walked to the Fern Rock movie theater. On the way home, they stopped to make out.

Keith always got to school first and waited to walk Colleen to class. They often spoke of their feelings with snippets of lovey-dovey lyrics from Chicago, 38 Special, or REO Speedwagon — their favorite — slipped into each other’s lockers. There were many more movies, and dances, and dinners out, all throughout high school. But the best times were often spent with each other’s families. Colleen soon spent every Saturday at Keith’s football games with his parents and five siblings. He joined Colleen, her mother, stepfather, and brother for Sunday dinners.

“He was so lovable, and he made me laugh, and even though we were just teenagers, we had such a strong connection,” Colleen said.

“My brother got married, and as I was dancing with her at my brother’s wedding, I thought, ‘I wish I was five years older, I’m so in love with this girl right now,’ ” Keith said. “I wish we were already living on our own instead of 16 and in high school.”

After graduating in 1987, Keith moved out of state to take what he thought was the right career path. Things went terribly wrong, and late that year, he returned to his parents’ house in what, as an adult, he recognizes was a deep depression. Back then, he felt directionless and broken and unable to take care of himself, let alone pursue a future with Colleen. He did not know how to explain what he was feeling, and by 1988, concluded he had to deal with whatever it was alone. “I didn’t want to drag her down,” he said. “I wanted her to have a better life.”

Colleen, who was finishing her freshman year at Penn State, knew her boyfriend was struggling and was worried. “He was not the same Keith,” she said. She tried to be there for him and hoped it would all be OK.

She was devastated when he broke up with her.

In his early 20s, Keith, who is now 55, landed a job with what is now the DHL shipping and logistics company and launched a career as a commercial driver. He now drives for Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Colleen, who is now 54, graduated from the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing in 1992. She is a medical/surgical nurse at Holy Redeemer Hospital.

During her first year of nursing school, Keith reached out to Colleen hoping for a second chance. She was seeing someone. A year later, she contacted him for the same reason, but by then, he was serious with the woman he would go on to marry in 1994 and with whom he has two sons, Jake, 24, and Nick, 23.

Later that year, Colleen met the man she would marry in 1996. They have three children: Patrick, 24; Claire, 20; and Kaitlyn, 18.

Ultimately, neither marriage worked out. Colleen said her tumultuous divorce began in 2009, but the process dragged out until 2011.

Keith and his ex filed for divorce in early 2016. It was a relatively amicable parting, he said.

That July, Keith went to Wildwood for the Cardinal Dougherty High School Reunion. So did Colleen.

This was not the first time they had seen each other since they broke up — both had lived in Collegeville with their families since 2004. On rare occasions, they ran into each other at places like the grocery store. They were always polite to each other, and then afterward, wondered what might have been. But the Dougherty reunion was the first time they spoke at any length, and the first time both felt free to find out what might still be.

“When he asked me how I was doing, I told him I’d been divorced for several years, and he told me he was in the process of a divorce,” Colleen said. They talked about their children and their jobs and then decided to continue the conversation outside. On the beach, they walked and talked some more and kissed for the first time in three decades.

“All the feelings were still there, and all the butterflies,” said Colleen. “We started where we had left off,” said Keith.

They immediately began dating and very quickly were serious. Then in September, Keith’s soon to be ex-wife was diagnosed with cancer. She could no longer work.

Keith had his own place and that would not change. But he could not sign divorce papers while the mother of his children needed health insurance. Colleen suggested they break up, but Keith talked her out of it.

“Thirty years ago, I broke up with her when I was mentally unstable. Now I’m telling her this is just a bump in the road, and we’ll get through this, like I’m a motivational speaker.”

Keith’s ex is now cancer-free. The divorce was finalized in February 2021.

In early October 2021, Keith invited Colleen, her mother, her good friend, and her friend’s husband to Fleming’s Steak House in Radnor to celebrate Colleen’s birthday.

“I had things set up with her girlfriend that when I excused myself during dessert, that was her time to get her phone ready,” Keith said.

Instead of returning to his seat, Keith knelt in front of Colleen. “Will you marry me?” he asked.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” Colleen mumbled through a mouthful of key lime pie. “Yes!”

Colleen’s son walked her down the aisle at Spring Ford Country Club. Her daughters were her bridesmaids, and Keith’s sons were his best men. Colleen’s brother, Thomas, became ordained so that he could officiate at the ceremony.

All that family participation “really made it perfect,” said Keith.

During the wedding planning, Thomas asked each of them to share some of their feelings about the other. He read what they wrote during the ceremony.

“Keith is my soulmate who fills my life and heart with love, joy, and laughter,” Colleen wrote.

“We were meant to be a long time ago,” wrote Keith. “I’m so happy we were able to find our way back to each other again to make things right.”

At their reception for 96, Keith and Colleen danced to REO Speedwagon’s “Keep On Loving You.” Keith danced with both of his sisters in his late mother’s honor. Colleen danced with her father, and she called her mother’s smile a highlight of the day. “She supported me through my divorce and 14 years later, seeing me married made her over-the-moon happy.”

The couple, who live in Collegeville, spent three nights in Cape May after the wedding and are looking forward to a bigger honeymoon in St. Lucia next year.

Love isn’t just about marriage, and love stories don’t stop at the wedding: We’re looking for stories about all kinds of love from parents and children, best friends, siblings, newlyweds and to-be-weds, and couples with experience. To be featured in a Love column, please send an email to love@inquirer.com with your names, a few sentences about your story and the best way to reach you. Please include your email address.