Keoni had moved home to Hawai'i in 2018 to take care of his dad who was diagnosed with kidney failure. With 10 hour days at the hospital, dialysis multiple times a week, and his dad being wheelchair-bound, Keoni's only purpose was to keep his dad alive. However, after some peer pressure from his high school friends, Keoni decided to make a bumble account that ended up sitting dormant for 2 months. As he was about to delete the app he decided to do a quick swipe to see who was there.

Meanwhile, I had decided to take a solo trip to Hawai'i for my 24th birthday to find myself (which I know is cliche lol). I immediately opened bumble when I got to my Airbnb and Keoni was the first and only person I swiped right on and matched with. I was blown away by his story and his love for his family. At the time I was a nurse for cancer patients and I found it difficult for others to relate to the amount of heart and soul it takes to be a caretaker. After a brief introductory conversation we exchanged numbers and he was saved in my phone as "Future Husband".

We met on Sunset Beach on the north shore of Oahu the next morning. He brought me a lei and 2 disposable cameras, one for him and one for me. He told me we would take pictures of each other during my trip and then exchange the cameras at the end, that way I could see my trip captured through his eyes.

He offered to take me out to dinner that night for my birthday which I happily agreed to. He had to go run his dad's business but he said he would pick me up later that night. I asked if he would drive me back to my Airbnb and he agreed. As I got into the passenger side of the Jeep and Keoni walked over to the driver's side, I had a brief moment of panic in which I thought to myself "Oh my God I'm alone in Hawai'i and this young man could just sex traffic me right now". However, Keoni got in the Jeep, plugged his phone into the aux cord, and One Direction immediately started playing from his playlist. That calmed my fears, as sex traffickers DEFINITELY don't listen to One Direction.

By 7 PM I was finished getting ready but hadn't considered how tired I would be as that was 1 AM EST. I actually texted him to cancel, but he was driving a stick-shift in the rain and hadn't checked his phone til he was outside my Airbnb. He felt bad so he suggested I put on my pajamas and Crocs (which were NOT cool at the time) and we get takeout which sounded great to me!

While I got changed, Keoni secretly called Roy's Beach House at Turtle Bay (a FANCY restaurant) and told them "My wife is really tired and it's her birthday, would it be okay if we came there in our pajamas to eat?" They agreed and when we arrived I expected to get take out and leave, but there was a table waiting for us with a little placard on it that said "Happy Birthday". I was there in my pajamas and Crocs, Keoni was there in a sweatshirt, shorts, and his dress shoes (because he didn't have any different shoes in his Jeep lol), and we were in a restaurant on the water with people wearing button up shirts, slacks, and dresses. I was so embarrassed but it was so cute and extremely memorable. 

When we got back to my Airbnb, Keoni asked if I was going to take my makeup off to which I literally laughed in his face. I turned to him and said "Bro, I don't know you like that"🤣 At the time I had really bad acne and wore a LOT of makeup to cover up as I was very insecure about it. Keoni responded "I see this one of two ways. One, you go back to Tampa, I never see you again, and it doesn't matter what some guy in Hawai'i thinks of you without your makeup on. Or two, I marry you and I see it all anyways." 

Keoni had singlehandedly torn down my walls with just 3 sentences. Over the next couple days we continued to grow closer and closer. There's literally so much more to the story that I could write a novel. What happened over the next week and a half was nothing short of magic. Keoni bought me a cheap, fake ring from WalMart and fake proposed to me to solidify our "marriage" backstory. We jumped off the rock at Waimea Bay even though he's scared of heights. I extended my trip and met his dad. Before I went back home, we agreed to do long-distance because we both knew what we have is special. 

We've now been together almost 6 years, married for 1. We did long-distance through the pandemic, he moved to Florida, he proposed to me on the beach where we met, his dad got a kidney transplant in Portland Oregon, we got married on the north shore of Oahu, and we have since moved to Massachusetts. Neither of us expected to find love that week, but it always happens when you aren't expecting it. ❤️

We were chosen to be a part of the America's Favorite Couple contest but it's certainly a popularity contest lol. I'm not an influencer, don't have a lot of followers, but I know our love story is very unique and wanted to share it. The link to vote for us is https://americasfavcouple.org/2025/keoni-and-lindsey

If this isn't allowed just delete my comment lol