Robert and Kelli Watling of Texas ran a 5k on their first date. They got engaged after running the Chicago Marathon in 2012. And they wanted to get married after running the Boston Marathon last spring.
But not long after they finished the race, two bombs exploded near the finish line on Boylston Street.
The couple decided to go ahead with the wedding as planned in nearby Boston Common. “We were torn with possibly having to postpone or finding an alternative location out of respect for the victims,” but “we really did not want to give in to terrorists […] because that’s their whole goal. They are trying to ruin things,” Kelli told the New York Daily News.
A few weeks ago, on September 16, Robert and Kelli welcomed a baby girl. They paid tribute to the people injured and killed in the Boston Marathon bombing by naming their daughter Alexandra Copley Watling — middle name for Copley Square, located just beyond the finish line.
(Copley Square, established in 1888, was named after Boston artist John Singleton Copley.)
Sources: Couple who wed after running last year’s Boston marathon name newborn baby daughter after site of bombing atrocity, Boston Marathon runners marry hours after explosions
Image: Gibran Khalil Gibran – Copley Square by Elie Khoury under CC BY 2.0.
That is one fantastic name story!
Definitely. (Though it makes me homesick!)