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It started off with a toque and ended up with Akirta Sran, OD ‘20, and Brendan Connors, OD ‘20, getting married backwards and without a ring. And along the way, four attempted marriage proposals got delayed on account of rain, just to add another level of uniqueness to a love story that started at Salus University.
Dr. Sran, of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada, had come to the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University after graduating from the University of Calgary in Alberta, with a degree in biological sciences and a minor in psychology. It was the first time she had been away from home for that amount of time for school in another country.
After her first set of finals that first year, she was scheduled to return to Alberta over the holiday break. But the weather canceled her flight, and she was forced to return to her apartment complex, Wyncote House, near the University’s campus in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. There, her classmates who hadn’t yet left for the holiday break were celebrating the completion of finals, and she ended up at a party where as chance would have it, Dr. Connors was also in attendance.
“I had noticed him in class and I definitely thought he was cute,” said Dr Sran.
The two struck up a conversation, and each was impressed by the other’s choice of headgear. Dr. Sran was wearing a ball cap and Dr. Connors was wearing a toque, what Canadians call a knitted winter cap with a fuzzy pom-pom ball on the top.
“I said, ‘That’s a nice toque, I’d like to wear it,’” Dr. Sran said to Dr. Connors, originally from Harwinton, Connecticut, who graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in biology and a minor in business. “So, I traded him my ball cap for his toque, we exchanged phone numbers and I left the next morning for Canada.”
For his part, Dr. Connors was attracted to Dr. Sran right away. “It was her smile and her hat,” he said. “I thought I could marry her one day.”
Still, they didn’t start dating right away and when they did, things got complicated not only by the pandemic but by Dr. Sran completing her residency on the other side of the country at the University of California Berkeley. They were only able to see each other a few times during that year because of the pandemic and the distance.
Dr. Sran was on a student visa that was coming to an end and the two had discussed getting married someday. But with the student visa complications and the challenge of a long-distance relationship, the two just decided to go all in
In April 2021, right in the middle of all the COVID stuff, they got married by a local mayor and with no ring. His parents could attend from Ohio, but her parents were limited to watching the small ceremony from Canada on a video call.
In reality, there was no ring because Dr. Connors hadn’t yet officially proposed to Dr. Sran. From that point, even though they were legally married, the couple started planning their other wedding, one that would include all family and friends and take place when COVID restrictions had eased enough for everyone to attend. And, Dr. Connors would start shopping for the ring and planning his proposal.
Everything about getting married now was going to be backward than the usual order of things — extended courtship, proposal, ceremony — for a couple that was already married. But even the proposal wouldn’t cooperate. Dr. Connors wanted it to be perfect and his initial plan was to give Dr. Sran the ring at the scene of their first date, Spruce Street Harbor Park in Philadelphia. But the weatherman wouldn’t sign on the plan and because of the rain, the park was dark and dreary that evening.
There were three more failed proposal attempts at various locations, all washed out by rain or canceled flights.
The couple had planned a traditional five-day Sikh Indian wedding for August 2022, more than a year after they had gotten married, to be held in Banff, Canada. It was just a few days before those festivities and Dr. Connors still hadn’t proposed to Dr. Sran. But the time arrived with no rain, and he finally got down on one knee, in front of everyone at the pre-wedding wedding celebrations, and gave her the ring.
“It was a magical moment and a unique story for us to finally get to that point,” she said. “It’s a beautiful ring, designed by Brendan, his mom and my sister.”
The couple now reside in Drums, Pennsylvania, with their one-and-a-half-year-old Samoyed puppy Wilbert. Both work at the same cutting-edge, medically based private practice that includes four locations, nine doctors, and four surgeons. It is the same practice where both served as externs at PCO/Salus.
“What we’re passionate about is rural, underserved areas,” said Dr Sran. “There are a lot of patients who need a lot of care. There’s nothing mundane or repetitive, there’s always something interesting going on due to the amount of ocular disease.”
