RIGHT TIME RIGHT PLACE

Roommate answers the door and love walks in

“I had heard his name before,” says the former Kelli Cavin. “My roommates thought he was pretty cute. When they came back I just said, ‘Well, if you don’t want him, I do.’”
“I had heard his name before,” says the former Kelli Cavin. “My roommates thought he was pretty cute. When they came back I just said, ‘Well, if you don’t want him, I do.’”

Joe Greenwood was looking for a girl from his past when he knocked on a door and his future wife opened it.

photo

Joe and Kelli Greenwood on their wedding day, Oct. 15, 1988

He was a student at Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia in 1987, but he was preparing for a move to Conway for a summer job. While he was in town one evening, he stopped by the condo of a girl he had met during a previous summer session at UCA, just to say hello.

On our first date:

She says: “I went home and woke up my parents to tell them that I had just kissed my future husband.”

He says: “Kelli sat on a slice of pizza. She had on white pants.”

On our wedding day:

She says: “I really felt like God was there, so much so that at the spur of the moment I asked someone to sing, ‘He is Here.’ It was the first song.”

He says: “I wasn’t nervous or anything. I was struck by how beautiful she was in her wedding dress.”

That girl, one he had a little bit of a crush on, wasn't home. Kelli Cavin answered his knock and let him inside.

"It seems like she was working on some schoolwork or something, and I think it must have been kind of late," Joe says. "But both of her roommates were gone and we got to talking."

The roommate Joe was interested in already had a boyfriend, but Kelli had heard her and their other roommate talking about Joe at some point.

"I had heard his name before," she says. "My roommates thought he was pretty cute. When they came back I just said, 'Well, if you don't want him, I do.'"

Kelli's roommates went home for the summer but she stayed in the condo for summer school. Joe shared an apartment with a friend and after work each day he would pick up his roommate and Kelli to go for dinner somewhere.

"I was spending money as fast as I made it," Joe says, "but it was fun."

When they weren't hungry, they hung out at the pool in Kelli's complex. "We just did everything together," she says. "The three of us were together all the time. I think they both knew I liked one of them but they weren't sure which one."

That was certainly the case, according to Joe.

"We were all best friends," Joe says. "But it was one of those awkward deals where I liked Kelli and I thought she liked me but we were all just super tight, best friends and I just wasn't sure."

Kelli invited Joe and his roommate over for dinner one night.

"It sort of became clearer that Kelli and I were on a date," he says. "I think she mentioned when we set that up that she was setting him up with her friend."

Shortly after that, Joe says, "We went out on a legit first date instead of just hanging out at her condo, and we kissed for the first time."

That was on July 1, 1987 -- bowling and pizza with friends. By the time Kelli left the next day on a vacation with her family there was no question for either of them about what they meant to each other. Before summer ended, Joe had decided to transfer back to UCA from SAU so he could continue seeing Kelli every day.

They went to her sister's house for dinner on the night of Dec. 2, 1987, and then back to Joe's apartment so she could type a research paper for him. It was late and he had fallen asleep while she was finishing but she woke him when she was done. He pulled out a ring right then and there and asked her if she would marry him.

"That wasn't terribly romantic, but I think she would say that I've come a long way in that area since then," Joe says.

Kelli graduated in May 1988 with a degree in marketing and fashion merchandising and Joe graduated that August with a degree in business management.

They were married Oct. 15, 1988, in New Life Worship Center in North Little Rock.

The newlyweds lived for a year in Joe's hometown, Camden, where he had a job at General Dynamics and she worked as a buyer at Wyatt's Department Store. Then they moved to Shelby, N.C., then to Miami, then Everett, Wash., then Tulsa and, 11 years ago, to Hot Springs, where he was hired by Triumph Group, which makes parts for the aviation industry.

The Greenwoods have two sons, Evan, who recently married and lives with his wife, Katie, in Hot Springs, and Drew, a student at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia.

It's hard for most people to say exactly how or when they knew they found "the one." Kelli thinks she might have known by Joe's kindness. "I cooked a horrible dinner that consisted of lumps of undissolved 'spices and seasonings' from a spaghetti sauce packet, and he acted like it was the best meal ever."

She has improved, but today, "he insists on cooking most of the time."

Joe knew from the moment she opened the door.

"We just had so much fun together. We were best friends, we laughed at the same things and we had so much in common. We're just kind of wired the same way," Joe says. "But it really was love at first sight. I know that sounds fairytaleish, but it actually was the case."

If you have an interesting how-we-met story or if you know someone who does, please call (501) 378-3496 or email:

[email protected]

High Profile on 03/29/2015

Upcoming Events