Visits: 23
Elizabeth Gregory and Charles Aoki bonded while waiting on the platform for almost an hour for the wrong train.
Charles Nelson Aoki likes to joke that on the first night he hung out with Elizabeth Grace Gregory in April 2017, he “technically kidnapped her.”
Mr. Aoki, who is a three-time team USA Wheelchair Rugby Paralympic medalist, was competing in the national championships in Phoenix that year, as a member of the Minnesota Steelheads. Mr. Aoki was born with a rare genetic condition called hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathy type II, which results in him not having sensation in his body below the knees and elbows.
Ms. Gregory was working as an equipment manager for the Houston Texans, another team competing in the tournament, while also undergoing treatment for dysautonomia, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that can cause dizziness.
After games, athletes and team staff would typically go out together for drinks. Ms. Gregory, who had met Mr. Aoki through a mutual friend, agreed to take the train with him, assuming that he was going to the same bar after the game.
But Mr. Aoki and his friends had been planning to go to bars on the other side of town in Tempe, Ariz., that evening. Thanks to a miscommunication, Ms. Gregory ended up waiting with Mr. Aoki for almost an hour for a train that would take her in the wrong direction.
Even though she was annoyed with Mr. Aoki for their misadventure, Ms. Gregory couldn’t help but notice while waiting on the train platform with him that he was “very handsome.”
“I remember being charmed,” Ms. Gregory, 24, said about Mr. Aoki. “I just felt like we had a really witty back and forth.” Mr. Aoki felt the same way.
“She was super funny, but honestly kind of sassy, but in like a really fun, vibey way,” said Mr. Aoki, 31. “She clearly was just kind of rolling with the whole adventure, and I thought that was really awesome.”
Ms. Gregory eventually arrived at her location, where she had arranged to meet a date that evening. Even though the date didn’t go well, her night took a turn for the better when Mr. Aoki ended up at the same hotel bar where she was. They spent the rest of the evening together and “have literally talked every single day since,” Mr. Aoki said.
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In June 2017, Mr. Aoki, who was living in Washington at the time asked Ms. Gregory, who was then in Houston, to be his girlfriend. She was initially hesitant — Ms. Gregory was planning to start college in the fall at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., where she eventually graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English.
Mr. Aoki knew they would be in a long-distance relationship for the foreseeable future. She eventually agreed, though, and the couple spent the next few years visiting each other and talking on the phone. In March 2020, when Ms. Gregory’s courses became remote, they moved to her parents’s home in Kerrville, Texas.
In February 2021, while training for the Tokyo Paralympics in Birmingham, Ala., Mr. Aoki got a bone infection in his knee, and spent a month in the hospital. Ms. Gregory moved to Birmingham for the month to take care of him, and by the time he started to heal, she knew she was ready for marriage.
“After we went through that, I was like, OK, I can do this,” Ms. Gregory said. In October 2021, Mr. Aoki proposed.
In April 2022 the couple moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where, along with being an athlete, Mr. Aoki works as the community access navigator for the University of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness Department. He received a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Metropolitan State University in Saint Paul, Minn., and a master’s degree in public policy from University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Ms. Gregory is currently pursuing a master’s degree in social work at the University of Michigan, and doing her field placement work at Dawn Farm, an addiction treatment center, in Ypsilanti, Mich.
The couple were married Dec. 17 before 90 vaccinated guests at the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis, followed by a reception at Windows On Minnesota, an events space in Minneapolis. The Rev. Judy Zabel, a United Methodist minister, performed the ceremony.
“I’ve never met anyone with such gusto for everything in life,” said Ms. Gregory, who plans to take her husband’s last name. “When you’re two people with disabilities, that kind of joy and gusto is really incredibly important in staying positive, staying happy, being able to laugh.”
Mr. Aoki agreed. “Knowing I have her as my partner in that going forward is really tremendous.”
