Teresa Dayle Hartley & Nathan Henry Morris

At the end of the summer of 2024, with Hank home in Georgia and Tess visiting friends in Oregon, we both decided to take one last look at our dating apps. Both of us felt like we ought to meet one more person before the end of summer break, with no pressure for anything to actually come of it, after which we’d delete the apps and return our focus back to grad school. After matching, we had a nice conversation over text by the end of which we knew we had to meet as soon as we were both back in Chicago, so Hank asked Tess for coffee. Our morning coffee date turned into a long walk around the neighborhood and lunch together. Tess was drawn to Hank’s gentleness and intelligence while Hank was drawn to Tess’ conscientiousness and optimism.

Our second date was just a few days later, an impromptu visit to see the Lyric Opera perform at Millennium Park – a concert which has become a yearly tradition for us. In the ensuing weeks we connected over our mutual fondness for the performing arts, reading, and fine dining. Our love for each other grew steadily in this time, always feeling comfortable and secure in each other’s presence. It wasn’t long before Tess took Hank to the Quad Cities and Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with her family, and at the end of the holiday we told each other “I love you”.

By January, our conversations naturally flowed into plans for our future together. With Tess about to graduate from nursing school and Hank beginning to finalize his dissertation and finish his PhD, we had a lot of change on the horizon. Through all of it, we knew that we wanted to go through these changes together. Around this time, Tess started attending Church of the Ascension, which had been Hank’s church in the city for much of grad school. We’ve loved becoming a part of the congregation and the many after-church dates that gave us the opportunity to explore our city together.

In June of 2026, after months of talking about marriage, Hank proposed to Tess in the South Gardens of the Art Institute of Chicago. We enjoyed a dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours before calling our families to share the news!

We are so excited for these next steps we are taking together and so grateful for our families, friends, and Church who have supported us through every moment. We may not know exactly where we will be in the future, but we are comforted by the knowledge that we will be together.