Every couple can recount how it all began. Here are the first pages detailing how two KO teachers found love right here on campus. Once upon a time, in a land that you walk on each day, physics teacher Kathleen DiSanto and French teacher Ryan Brodeur were just two teens in high school. Out for the season due to injuries, Ms. DiSanto, a freshman cross country runner, sat on a bench outside Alumni Hall, holding her team’s sweats and cheering as runners briskly ran passed her. As remembered by Ms. DiSanto, Mr. Brodeur, a KO junior, wore a collared shirt open over a white t-shirt, a red sox hat, and hemp necklaces. He was on an intramural team, so he was just hanging out with his guitar. “I remember thinking he was super cute, but he was a junior,” Ms. DiSanto said.
Mr. Brodeur recollects the day as well. “I too remember the location.” he said. “I thought she was super cute, but I was a junior.” Mr. Brodeur caught Ms. DiSanto’s affection at the Florida swimp trip when they started becoming friends. After the trip, during a shield and dragons meeting, Mr. Brodeur left early and asked Ms. DiSanto to let him know what he missed. So, she called him… on the landline. Later that year, Ms. DiSanto told Mr. Brodeur’s best friend that she liked Mr. Brodeur. When Mr. Brodeur found out in the library, he said he didn’t believe it.
Flipping forward to the first week of school in 2000, Mr. Brodeur knew he liked Ms. DiSanto, despite the grade difference. “I was in first house because I enrolled in Mr. Jones’s History of Religions class,” he started. “By the way, I dropped that class like it was hot. Anyways, I remember walking out of first house, and there was Ms. Disanto walking right along the houses and I remember thinking, ‘there goes the love of my life,’ and I missed my chance.” Lucky enough for Mr. Brodeur, Ms. DiSanto was not going to let him get away just yet. He’d need to wait for college for that.
“I remember he was sitting on a green reading a book and I walked up to him.” Ms. DiSanto recalled. “I knelt down and said, ‘I just wanted to tell you that I really like you,’ and then something about throwing up.” Mr. Brodeur was hesitant at first. “First off I was super pumped that you [Ms. DiSanto] told me,” he said. “I thought, ‘that’s really great, but I’m still an upperclassman and going to college,’ so I kinda brushed it off.” That plan worked well, as the two ended up talking for two hours after that and at the end he asked her out.
“Before we went out, there was this event called the cupcake classic that was open to anyone,” he said. “You got a cupcake after running the three miles or something. I decided to run in the cupcake classic, which was a terrible idea because I had never ran before. I flat out sprinted for a mile to impress Ms. DiSanto and then walked the other two.”
Ms. DiSanto said she remembers being concerned. “I was still injured, so I was a timer,” she said. “When he passed by I said, ‘slow down!’ ”
By the end of a date at the Durham fair it was official. Ms. DiSanto and Mr. Brodeur were a couple. They even shoke hands on it. “A firm handshake,” Mr. Brodeur commented.
Once settled into their relationship, they usually hung out in the basement of Roberts or walked on the senior green. When not at KO, the lovebugs would hangout at Borders Bookstore, drive around and talk, sometimes go to the movies, other times the mall, or go out to dinner every once and awhile. They also attended all their proms together. Did they know that they were the one for each other? “Yeah, I told her I loved her after we’d been dating for a month and I meant it,” Mr. Brodeur said.
He showed it by giving her gifts. “There used to be a flower shop down on farmington,” he said. “I would get her flowers and put them into her locker.” Aw, how sweet. “Then they’d die because she forgot about them.” He continued to get her flowers while he attended Trinity College. The rest, as they say, is history. Or in this case, we all know that the couple lived happily ever after, getting married after college, both ending up working in education, and then Mr. Brodeur followed Ms. DiSanto to KO. The couple will have known each other for 19 years in September.
“When we were together it was just easy,” Ms. DiSanto said. “We’re really lucky.”
What’s it like being back at KO as teachers? “I remember certain memories from high school being here, but less as the year moves on,” he said. “We create new memories that replace the old.” Ironically enough, Mr. Brodeur was voted most likely to return as a teacher for senior superlatives and he said he was super annoyed.
Ms. DiSanto said it depends. “It’s nice to know the structure of day and culture of the school,” she said,” but it’s a disadvantage to assume that some things are the same when they’re not.” While the beginning chapter of how pair met is closed, their fairytale ever after has only just begun as they continue the relationship in the place where it all started.
