Among the tired passengers, overweight luggage and harsh fluorescent lighting, Dr. Aneesha Reddy Gala was waiting for the Cincinnati Airport People Mover, an underground train at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
It was December 2022, and Gala was traveling home to San Jose, Calif., for the holidays after her first semester of medical school at the University of Cincinnati. She spotted a classmate, Sarah Beeker, who was waiting on the same platform with her parents, brother, sister and grandfather.
Little did any of them know, Gala and that brother, Andrew Brian Geraghty, would marry three and a half years later.
“We did things backwards,” Gala said. “I ended up meeting the whole family before our first date.”
It was a fleeting moment, but in the brief time Gala spoke to the Geraghty family, she learned that she lived down the street from them in the Western Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. After the holidays, Beeker invited Gala to watch a football game at their family’s house. She accepted.
Geraghty, the brother, had been struck by Gala at the airport. During the game, he struck up a conversation with her. She had no idea he was trying to flirt.
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
He eventually messaged Gala on Instagram and asked her on a date. She said yes, still not knowing whether it was one. In February, the two went for Thai food and ice cream and then back to her place to continue talking. The date lasted seven hours.
“It was the longest date I’ve ever been on, but it also felt like the shortest,” Gala recalled. “There was never a point in our conversations where we were like, ‘What do we talk about next?’”
Gala, 28, is a resident physician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She was born in Houston and raised in San Jose, Calif. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University and a medical degree from the University of Cincinnati.
Geraghty, 26, is currently studying for the bar exam. He was born and raised in Cincinnati. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics and the public and economics (a double major) from Xavier University and a law degree from the University of Cincinnati.
A little while later, Geraghty ordered Scrabble to be delivered to Gala’s house. He didn’t particularly like the game, but used it as an excuse to see her again. As they sat on the couch in his apartment playing, he kissed her.
“I’ve not won a single game of Scrabble against her,” Geraghty said.
During one holiday season, Gala became quite ill with a stomach flu. At 2 a.m., Geraghty went to the store to buy Gatorade and other supplies for her. When he returned, he built a nest of blankets on the bathroom floor, and they watched “Finding Dory” as she slowly recovered.
“He just stepped up and never complained,” she said.
Geraghty said he knew he wanted to marry Gala within three weeks of their first date. “The way she interacted with children, how thoughtful of a gift giver she was,” he said. “There’s only so many signs the universe can send you before you say yes.”
His family was immediately welcoming to Gala. When she first met Geraghty’s mother, she took her phone out of her hands, put in her phone number and told Gala, who was far from her own parents in San Jose, that she would be her emergency contact.
The Geraghty family frequented the Western Hills Country Club, where Geraghty’s maternal grandfather, who is from Cuttack, in the Indian state of Orissa (now Odisha), was one of the first nonwhite members. (Gala’s parents are originally from Andhra Pradesh, India.) When Geraghty and Gala started dating, she also became a regular guest.
On June 22, 2025, Geraghty proposed to Gala on the club’s golf course.
The two married on June 6 at St. Monica-St. George Parish Newman Center, before 225 guests, by the Rev. Tim Fahey, a Catholic pastor. To honor their shared Indian roots, they also held an Indian wedding, which was attended by 160 guests.
Gala recently started her residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where Geraghty’s mother is also a doctor. In her wedding speech, his mother, Dr. Sheela Geraghty, said, “After 31 years of working at the hospital, there will be another Dr. Geraghty.”
The post On a Ride to Her Gate, She Found Her Husband appeared first on New York Times.
