Updated Jan. 16
Matthew Ruley wore protective medical gear and sat beside his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary. From her hospital room, where she was sedated due to COVID-19 complications, he called people who had been at their wedding â the bridesmaids, the woman who caught the bouquet. He held the phone to her ear.
They had met during the first rehearsal for a production of
Sweeney Todd put on by the St. Petersburg Little Theatre. And after that, they did everything as a team: facilitating meetings, serving as sounding boards on big projects, raising two kids they adopted from Kazakhstan in 2008, putting on shows, performing tunes.