Serpil Wilson, 56, was about to delete his online dating profile after a series of bad dates. She had rejoined dating years after the divorce. And when her kids went to college, she realized it was time. But online dating was frustrating.
“I was kind of giving up,” said Wilson.
When she was about to give up, she received a new message. It was from a man named Keith Davis.
“And then he said, ‘I really like your profile, can we meet?'” Said Wilson.
The day of the meeting was a kind of disaster. She had to work late and the car battery ran out. She started to panic when it came close to the time when they were supposed to meet. She didn’t want Davis to think she was abandoning him, so she let him know what happened.
He wanted to help. Wilson actually has a voice message that he left for her that day, while they were trying to find out everything.
Finally, she arrived at the restaurant and the meeting. The date she told herself would be her last attempt at online dating turned out to be just that. It was clear: the two matched.
Courtesy of Serpil Wilson
“He was a very determined person, and I am,” said Wilson. “He was tenacious. I am. Although we are from two different cultures, we were the same.”
Wilson, a medical physicist, grew up in Turkey. Davis, an architect, was a native of Charlott. The 16-month romance was a whirlwind. They traveled to three national parks, saw beaches and mountains.
A year went by and Keith asked her to marry him. They celebrated with friends and family at a small party. The couple loved to dance. In a video of the celebration, they are laughing and smiling as they dance. She is wearing a bright red dress, he is wearing a black jacket and long pants. They look so comfortable with each other – and very much in love.
They were supposed to get married in April 2020, but then the pandemic came. Originally, they planned to get married in South Carolina, where Wilson lives. But then the restrictions started to get even stricter.
“‘Everything is canceling. I feel like I’m married to you; I don’t care. You know, we can wait,'” she recalls saying. “And he felt the same way.”
At the time when they decided to postpone the wedding, people started wearing masks and practicing social detachment. Supplies like toilet paper and hand sanitizer were hard to find.
Serpil Wilson and Keith Davis
What made Wilson and Davis such a good couple was that they loved working on projects together. And they liked to find solutions. They had an idea: what if they could produce a hand sanitizer that met CDC and FDA approval and could help with supply demand?
Wilson was inspired by his Turkish roots. In the culture in which she grew up, it was common for people to use kolonya, a fragrance that usually smells like lemon or lavender – and also includes alcohol to kill germs. In fact, Turkey saw an increase in kolonya sales in the early days of the pandemic.
With the help of family and friends, Wilson and Davis worked on their own version of the product, which they called kleanYa.
But then, in late May, Davis fell ill. It was COVID-19. He had to go to the hospital. His oxygen levels were so low that he needed to be placed on a ventilator.
He stayed in the hospital for weeks and barely responded. He was eventually removed from the respirator, and for a moment, Wilson felt something she hadn’t felt in a while: hope.
“I used to talk to his mother on the way to work and we were talking about which rehab center we would choose so that I could visit him on the way to work and back,” said Wilson.
But that feeling did not last long.
Davis suddenly got worse. Your blood pressure dropped. The family received a call to come to the hospital – this time to say goodbye.
Courtesy of Serpil Wilson
Hospital restrictions were severe because of the pandemic. Wilson was on his fiancé’s list of approved to be in the room. But when her son and daughter were able to run to the hospital, she insisted on exchanging her place for his children. Davis was Wilson’s soul mate, she says, and she wanted to make sure her children said goodbye in person.
Keith Davis died on June 25, 2020, at the age of 57.
“I just wanted to continue to do the things that he and I – would do,” said Wilson. “We were going to learn to sail that September, so I just went on a sailing course. It’s not the same thing. I did as many things as I could.”
She started thinking about kleanYa again – and the basis for the product she had started with Davis.
“I want people to know about him,” said Wilson.
With the help of family and friends, a website was built. A logo was created. Working on kleanYa became Wilson’s way of processing his pain.
But it was not easy. One of the most challenging parts was getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration. And then there was the fact that she was working on a project that was a constant reminder that the man she planned to spend the rest of her life with was not there.
“There were several times that I thought, I just want to hang up now,” said Wilson. “You have work and you have life. And I mean, besides, you have that support that I missed.”
She pushed.
She decided one night to stay awake as long as it took to finish the FDA paperwork. She clicked send. Within a week, she was notified that she could move on to the next step in the registration process. She felt like Davis was there with her the whole time. When she received the news that the FDA paperwork was completed correctly, she said she looked up.
Courtesy of Serpil Wilson
“I’m like, ‘Hey, there you are,'” she remembers saying. “‘You are with me.’ I felt that way, I mean, so many times. “
Wilson’s goal is to transform kleanYa into a non-profit organization that will support other families that have lost loved ones to COVID-19. She hopes to achieve nonprofit status by December 11, 2021. This will mark the anniversary of the launch of kleanYa – and it is Davis’s birthday.
Wilson said he knows Davis is still taking care of her. One of the ways she can stay connected to him is by listening to his voice. She kept all 27 voice messages he left during the relationship.
“I listen to it every day,” she said. “It’s a ritual. Every day I hear his voice.”
Their relationship was short, but Wilson says it was significant in what she and Davis were able to accomplish together.
“It was very short, but sometimes short means nothing,” she said. “And he is here in the spirit.”
When Wilson hears Davis’ voice, when he works on the product he had dreamed of with the person he loves, she says she feels she can survive another day. She says Davis was a really great guy – and then he corrects himself.
He It is a nice guy, she says. Having met him is part of what gives you the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Still Here’s theme song was composed and produced by Patrick Bowden and Patrick Lee.
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