A pair of Collegeville high school sweethearts who were reunited after 30 years of separation finally united in matrimony at Springford Country Club, writes Kellie Patrick Gates for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Their love story does not follow a linear path, and their hearts were often ships passing in the night.  

Colleen Uhlein met Keith Latchum on her 15th birthday. They were both students at Cardinal Dougherty High School when Keith’s football teammate introduced them. Soon enough, they were steadily dating, attending homecoming together, and spending time with each other’s families.  

“He was so lovable, and he made me laugh, and even though we were just teenagers, we had such a strong connection,” said Colleen. 

But once Keith graduated high school in 1987 to pursue a career out of state, their paths started to divert. His career went “terribly wrong,” and he was left directionless. Colleen was a freshman at Penn State when they broke up.  

“I didn’t want to drag her down,” Keith said. “I wanted her to have a better life.” 

The pair had attempted to rekindle their fire, but to no such luck. Keith reached out first, during Colleen’s first year of nursing school, but she was in a relationship.  

Then, it was Colleen’s turn to extend the olive branch a year later, but Keith was with the woman he would eventually marry and have his two sons with. Then in 1996, Colleen met her future first husband and father of their three children.  

Colleen and Keith lived separate but parallel lives, both living with their families in Collegeville since 2004. They would occasionally run into each other at a grocery store but did not talk for an extensive amount of time. But a few years later, they started to find their way back to each other. 

Colleen had a long divorce that dragged on from 2009 to 2011, and Keith filed for divorce in 2016. In July of that year, they both attended their high school reunion in Wildwood, and the bond from their teenage years reignited.  

“All the feelings were still there, and all the butterflies,” said Colleen. “We started where we had left off,” said Keith. 

The couple had a full-circle moment when Keith proposed to Colleen on her birthday in 2021. She said “yes,” and a year later the couple celebrated their union at the altar with their blended family.  

Read more about the Collegeville couple’s love story in The Philadelphia Inquirer.