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The bride sported sparkly Chuck Taylor high-tops under her floor-length, strapless white gown.

The thin black satin sash around Andrea Lytle’s waist matched David Peet’s tuxedo and her bridesmaids’ cocktail dresses. The couple locked eyes as they promised to love each other through good times and bad, and to “comfort each other in sickness, trouble and sorrow.” 

Later at the reception, they looked a little bashful when the DJ called them out for their first dance. Then nerves disappeared as they danced to Falling Slowly, a song they first heard in the movie Once.

They started out as friends. After Spanish class, Andrea Lytle ’03 would walk David Peet ’05 to the Chambers basement, alleging a craving for a Dr Pepper. He didn’t know that she had to race back upstairs and was always late for her next class. 

Friendship evolved into love, and survived distance. He studied abroad in Chile, then later, attended law school in Washington, D.C., while she went to graduate school in Georgia.

At the wedding, they celebrated finally being together in the same city, and their happiness filled the room. A few years later, David Peet, a lawyer, and Andrea Lytle Peet, an urban planner, had settled into their careers, bought a house outside Washington, D.C., and hoped to have children. 

A ruthless intruder had other plans.

Andrea, an avid triathlete, started experiencing muscle tightness, and balance problems that caused her to fall. She felt a disconnect between her brain and muscles. In 2014, after months of seeing different specialists, they got a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It’s a neurogenerative disease that causes the brain to stop sending signals to muscles, leading to paralysis. Those with ALS have a median life span of three years after symptoms begin. About 10 percent live 10 or more years with ALS.

The diagnosis devastated them. That night, as they mourned in their hotel room, they made this promise: “We kept telling each other that regardless of how painful it all was,” David says, “we’d have each other—that we’d always share this pain together.”

David Peet Jr. remembers first meeting Andrea after one of his son’s 51���� Generals acapella concerts.

“It was clear they were very serious; you could just see the love in their eyes and you still can,” he says. “You can’t always choose what life brings your way, but you can choose how you deal with it. They have been so steadfast with the marathons and the fundraising; it’s given both of them a purpose beyond themselves. 

“They have grown in spirit; they have not been diminished by the disease or let it beat them.”

Their loved ones describe the mischievous glances and quick grins the couple often share—a testament to two decades of inside jokes. David still serenades Andrea acapella-style with silly jingles that make her laugh. 

And comforts her when she’s down. 

Ashley Griffith Kollme ’05 looked out her window after the Peets visited one day. Andrea had a tough time physically and seemed upset when they left. 

“I saw Dave standing with her, cupping her face, looking at her so lovingly and offering what looked like the most sincere words of encouragement,” Kollme says. “In that moment, I think a million messages of love were conveyed.” 

Learn more about Andrea Peet's journey and work to change lives in the Fall/Winter 2021 51���� Journal magazine.