[posted by Allison]
One of my earliest memories I have of him is from my freshman year at Catholic University. He was a sophomore and we had only met a few times before I came down with a bad case of strep throat and had to miss several of my classes in my first few weeks. Luke texted me and told me he was coming over to my dorm, and he skipped two of his own classes to be with me and take care of me. He brought me medicine and soup from the school store and just sat with me as we watched youtube videos of people singing. I made him show me videos of him in Les Mis and was so blown away by that beautiful voice. I remember looking at him, sitting there laughing with me and being with me as I was lying there, no make up, feverish, homesick, and thinking “wow what kind of guy would do this for someone he barely knew?” He left for a class and came back later while I was sleeping and left a salt shaker he stole from the cafeteria for me so that I could gargle and help heal my throat. He had snuck it into his pocket and later told me he had a puddle of salt left in there and he also got it all over our floor, but it was totally worth it. He left a note that said he’d be back after class. This memory reminds me of how generous he was, to complete strangers like he was to his closest friends and family. It reminds me of how he would stop at nothing to help someone in need, and how compassionate he was to anyone who was suffering or having a hard day.
About a week later he ended up getting strep throat too, probably from me since he was with me an entire day, and I took him to urgent care and sat with him in the waiting room. When his name was called they said “family only” could come back and the waiting room had a somewhat sketchy downtown DC urgent care vibe to it, so he told them I was his wife so they would let me come back with him! I couldn’t believe they didn’t even question it and that he didn’t just say “sister” or something but jumped right to wife. We joked about that two years later, that somehow he already knew that we would end up getting married when he blurted out that I was his wife. This strep throat incident ended up being the foundation of our friendship in college and gave me such a clear idea of how generous and wonderful this guy really was.