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BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY | Special to the Birmingham Times
REGINALD AND GWENDOLYN WILLIAMS
Live: Fairfield
Married: Nov. 30, 2001
Met: June 1998 at Fairfield Rehabilitation Center. Gwendolyn was already working in the laundry department when Reginald joined the team.
“When I came in, I caught them [Gwendolyn and a female coworker] looking at my butt,” Reginald said.
Gwendolyn laughed and gave this version of what happened. “Me and another laundry attendant were sitting up there folding the laundry and he came in there for his interview wearing some black Levi jeans, and he was cute and bow-legged, and that’s why we were looking at him,” Gwendolyn said.
Reginald got the job and asked her out. “I told him no, because I didn’t date guys I worked with,” said Gwendolyn, “but eventually, I changed my mind.”
“Flowers and candy go a long way,” Reginald said, “and she gets [on me now] because I stopped with the candy and flowers … ain’t no more ‘just because flowers’, it’s only every now and then.”
“He wasn’t supposed to stop doing it,” Gwendolyn said, “I say, the way you get him is how you got to keep them.”
It took Reginald a whole year of flowers and candy to wear Gwendolyn down and get her to say ‘yes’ to a date. “That’s why I stopped buying flowers and candy. Do you know how many [bouquets of] flowers and candy I bought in that year?” Reginald laughed.
First date: Summer 1999. The pair had arranged to meet at the Krispy Kreme donut shop in Midfield, but the meetup didn’t go smoothly, and to make up for it, Reginald took Gwendolyn to dinner at Ruth’s Chris at the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Birmingham.
“We kept crisscrossing and missing each other [at Krispy Kreme], it was hectic,” said Gwendolyn. “We were supposed to meet [at the donut shop], and I waited and waited and got tired of waiting and then went to his mama’s house in Midfield to catch up with him, and while I was doing that, he was doing the same thing. Reginald would be waiting on me [at Krispy Kreme] while I was waiting on him at his mama’s house. We did that back and forth three times before we finally caught each other at Krispy Kreme and [to make it up to me for the confusion], he said why don’t we go have a steak at the steakhouse.”
Reginald said he was a smooth guy and offered a fancy steak dinner. “I took her to Ruth’s Chris at the Embassy, and we got a room at the same hotel the same night… I more than made up for it,” Reginald laughed.
The turn: Exclusivity was established on their first date, Reginald said. “After that night, I knew there wasn’t nobody else for me, she was the one,” he said.
“I knew he was the one the day he came into work with lipstick on his collar. One of them nurses had hemmed him up in a room, and I went around looking at all the nurses trying to find out which woman had that lipstick color on,” Gwendolyn laughed. “He used to call himself trying to be so innocent acting … when really, he was a ladies’ man. But when I saw that lipstick and I went looking to find out who’s it was, I knew wanted him, and that was before we even had gone out on a date.” (Gwendolyn said she never did find whose lipstick it was.)
Reginald and Gwendolyn Williams met in 1998 while working at Fairfield Rehabilitation Center. The couple married in 2001. (Provided Photos)The proposal: Valentine’s Day 2001, at Reginald’s apartment in Inglenook. “I had rose petals going from the front door to the bedroom, candles lit, and music going. And when Gwen came in [the apartment] I was standing up in the doorway of the bedroom, and when she reached me I took her hand in mine and asked her to marry me,” Reginald said.
“I was smiling, it was nice. I said, ‘are you for real?’ and after he said ‘yes, I want you to be my wife’, I said ‘yes’,” said Gwendolyn.
The wedding: At the Birmingham Courthouse in front of City Hall, officiated by a courthouse clergyman. Reginald and Gwendolyn wore matching black leather jackets and cowboy boots.
Most memorable for the bride and groom was a shared moment after taking their vows. “For me, it was walking back to the car and crossing in front of that big fountain as Mrs. Williams,” said Gwendolyn. “And for me, it was singing ‘I got a yooooung wife, I got a yooooung wife’, all the way back to the car,” Reginald laughed.
Gwendolyn was 36, and Reginald was 46 on the day of their nuptials.
They honeymooned in Las Vegas, Nevada, and stayed at Circus Circus Hotel and Casino. “That was my first time in Vegas, and I enjoyed being there with my new, young wife,” Reginald said. “I always used to call her ‘baby girl’, but she’s all grown up now,” he said.
“I loved the lights and the Vegas strip, and being there with him as Mrs. Williams,” Gwendolyn said.
Words of wisdom: “Never go to be angry,” Reginald said. “And I say, everything you did to get her, you gotta continue doing it to keep her,” said Gwendolyn.
Happily ever after: The Williams attend Mount Ararat Missionary Baptist Church, in Birmingham. They have five adult children: Reginald Bonner, Kewannecca Turner, Cordaro Simmons, Hurtis Nelson, and Kiara Nelson, 16 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild.
Gwendolyn, 58, is a Wenonah native and Wenonah High School grad. She attended Lawson State Community College where earned an associate’s degree in nursing assistance. Gwendolyn is an Eastern Star, and retired from surgery scheduling at Brookwood Medical Center, in 2019.
Reginald, 67, is an Inglenook native and Hayes High School grad. He retired from the laundry department at Fairfield Rehabilitation Center in 2000.
“You Had Me at Hello’’ highlights married couples and the love that binds them. If you would like to be considered for a future “Hello’’ column, or know someone, please send nominations to Barnett Wright bwright@birminghamtimes.com. Include the couple’s name, contact number(s) and what makes their love story unique.
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