With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, love is in the air at the West Bend High Schools–and it’s not just students who are feeling it.
Every morning, school counselor Kris Kemp wakes up, comes to school and walks to her office. But what makes her morning routine a little different than most is that her husband does it all with her.
The two met in November 1991 at a psychiatric hospital where Michael Kemp was a social worker and Kris was transporting an adolescent struggling with addiction to the hospital, signifying the caring nature of the two.
“There was this instant chemistry, but it took us months to get together,” Kris said. “It was complicated. I had a boyfriend.”
Despite their unconventional meeting, the two eventually started dating and got married. When the two moved to Oregon on a whim 10 years ago, their workplaces were close enough that they could drive together. When they moved back to Wisconsin, with Michael now semi-retired, Kris noticed that she missed driving to work with her husband. Upon hearing this, Michael offered without hesitation to drive her to work, take her to her office (holding her hand, of course), and walk home afterwards.
“And the really cool thing we’ve talked about with this is that I’ve never had a boyfriend in high school so this is the first time I’ve ever held hands with a guy in high school even though we’re not kids,” Kris said. “And he didn’t either. He didn’t have a girlfriend or hold hands with anybody. So this is the first time we’ve walked a high school in our life holding hands.”
This is not the only romantic gesture Kris receives from her husband, either. During our interview, she pulled out her lunch box (packed by her husband) and showed me a love note he had written to her that day. She then showed off a jar stuffed to the brim with such love notes. The jar must be emptied every quarter because it fills up so fast.
West English teacher Danielle Schumacher has seen the Kemps’ morning routine firsthand. For months Schumacher would enter the building in the mornings as Michael left. He would always hold the door for her.
“I would thank him, but I had no idea who he was, so I wondered who the heck this dude leaving the building at 6:50 a.m. wearing jogging pants was,” Schumacher said.
When she finally became aware of who exactly this “dude” was, Schumacher recognized just how meaningful and considerate this small gesture is.
“I just remember feeling so overcome with joy for them and being filled with awe,” Schumacher said. “This couple, who have been married for so long, still do something that is common when a couple is first dating. Back in the day, it might have been carrying a girlfriend’s textbooks and walking them to class. These days, it might be walking with the other person to their class.”
When Kris told Michael that they would be the subject of a newspaper article, he had two things to say to her: “We are blessed to have each other” and “I love you to the Death Star and back.”
This Valentine’s Day, love is all around, but the Kemps’ relationship reminds everyone that love is a year-round celebration.
(Photos courtesy of Kris and Michael Kemp.)
The West Bend Current 
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