She saved his life, and now they will share theirs together forever. Kevin Walsh recently revealed the story of a phone call that changed his life in a touching post on Quora. A fellow user posed the question: “What is one moment in your life you thought could only happen in a movie?”—and Kevin had a doozy of an answer.
“Once upon a time I was 13 at a summer camp and the prettiest girl I’d ever seen walked right up to me and said, ‘Black is a good color on you,’” he wrote in his response. “No idea why. We chatted and became friends, exchanged AIM screen names (it was the time) and stayed in touch for a while.”
(Credit: Chantal Pasag / Photos by Pasagraphy)
Then came high school. “We fell off each others’ radar some time in high school, but I can promise you that not a day went by that I didn’t think about that girl,” he continued in his post. “Even now I’m not sure I can say why—something about her just stayed with me.”
Somehow, they reconnected in the most mysterious of ways. When he was 17, Kevin explained, he fell into an “earth-shattering” depression that led him to contemplate suicide.
But then, something miraculous happened. To hear Kevin tell it, “somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds before I would have committed suicide, my phone rang. I checked the caller ID—I couldn’t die not knowing. It was a number I didn’t recognize, so I picked up and it was her.”
(Credit: Chantal Pasag / Photos by Pasagraphy)
The pair chatted and caught up in what was largely a normal conversation, but toward the end, Kevin confessed to Blake that he had been thinking about taking his life. “Long story short, she pried, I spilled the beans and she talked me out of it,” Kevin wrote. “I mean, she literally said, ‘What? Don’t do that.’ And that was that. She made me promise to call her the next day, and we hung up. That night I started writing the words which, ten years later, I’d propose with.”
For Kevin, all it took was one person. “When Blake called, I had already let everything go,” he tells The Knot. “I was a malleable mess of a human. I think that’s part of why I spilled the beans and told her what I’d been planning… I know this sounds insane, but that was all I needed to snap out of it.”
(Credit: Chantal Pasag / Photos by Pasagraphy)
Blake’s account of the fateful phone call goes a little differently, though the outcome is the same: “Knowing his personality, he’s very analytical, and I knew if he had ended up at that point, he had taken all the steps to get there and he wasn’t doing it for attention,” she told People in a separate interview. “This was something he was going to do, and I’m very grateful that I picked up because if I hadn’t, he wouldn’t be here now.”
The pair kept in touch, and despite both dating other people on and off in the following years, they stayed an important part of each other’s lives. In April 2016, Kevin finally mustered the courage to confess his love and admiration for Blake, using those very words he had written following their fateful phone call.
And another important detail: the ring Kevin proposed with contained a black diamond, an homage to Blake’s offhanded comment that he looked good in black all those years ago. “I actually ended up putting this one back on her years later,” he tells The Knot. “I designed her engagement ring with a black center diamond, and had the ring engraved with the very same words.”
Reflecting on their incredible love story, Kevin says that his biggest takeaway is just how important that connection was to him that day. “For me, the reason is simple: There are a lot of people silently struggling with thoughts of suicide,” he continues to us. “In all the time I contemplated, planned, and set up my own, never once did I indicate to anyone that I was in trouble.”
(Credit: Chantal Pasag / Photos by Pasagraphy)
The couple wouldn’t realize the discrepancy in their stories until after they got married, in September 2016. “I think both of our recollections are true,” Blake told People. “A force must have intervened to connect us and make it happen.”
Meanwhile, Kevin tells us why he’s sharing his story now. “The takeaway is twofold,” he says. “First, if this is you, and you’re struggling, please just talk to someone. Anyone. Please give someone the chance to care about you. Second, please take a little bit of time to learn the warning signs and to prepare for that situation should you ever have to face it. Ask the people close to you how they’re doing, and take time to understand what they’re going through. You never know when you’re going to be on the other end of that call.”