After several proposals and talk of the future, a wedding

May 30, 2023, in Collingswood, N.J.

In the video playing on Lamont’s cousin’s computer, a beautiful woman was singing.

“Who is this girl?” Lamont asked.

It was Kayshon, a cousin of Lamont’s cousin’s girlfriend. “Do you want to meet her?”

“I was single and young, and when my cousin called me and said ‘Someone wants to meet you,’ I said, OK, cool,” Kayshon remembers of that conversation about 11 years ago.

The next day, Lamont and his cousin — who lived next door — drove from Elkton, Md., to North Philadelphia to pick up Kayshon and bring her to Elkton for the weekend.

“We were talking the whole car ride, and it wasn’t awkward at all,” remembers Kayshon, who is now 27. “It felt almost like we knew each other.”

“I usually don’t talk, but when I was in the car with her, everything came pouring out,” said Lamont, now 31. “I asked her about her life, and I told her everything about my life. I was trying to be a big baller, and I told her ‘I got my own studio. I make all this music.’ ”

He played some of it for her that weekend. Things were going well until Lamont’s cousin asked a question Kayshon found inappropriate, and the two men started joking in a way that made her uncomfortable and angry.

Lamont didn’t know how to reach her to apologize — going through his cousin wasn’t an option. “I lost her for a year,” he said. He thought about her constantly.

Kayshon, who was a home health aide, remained close with her cousin. One day while she was visiting, Lamont’s brother popped over from next door. Kayshon decided the connection she had felt with Lamont the year before might be worth another chance — if he earned it. She dropped a hint to his brother, and Lamont came to see her right after work.

“I used my cousin’s kids to get her to forgive me,” Lamont remembers. “They wanted to go to the park. She was all poker-faced and I said, ‘Just come to the park. You don’t have to talk to me or anything.’ ”

When Kayshon cracked a smile, he knew the ice was broken. He apologized. But Kayshon wasn’t playing games — by then, she had an infant son, Damian, who is now 9. “If you want to be with me, you need to be serious,” she told him.

“I was trying not to let anything get in my way with this girl,” Lamont remembered. “I was like, ‘Listen, I’m down.’ ”

Lamont fell hard for Kayshon’s sense of fun, her ambition, her intelligence, and her beauty. “She just took me by surprise — she is a person like I never saw before,” he said. “She was literally my first girlfriend, because no other girl ever took my attention the way Kay did. I didn’t know how to be a father at the time, but it was like wow, this is fun, this is amazing, I get to learn.”

Kayshon admires Lamont’s determination in any circumstance. “He was always trying to figure out more, to learn more, to just keep going,” she said. “I also fell in love with his smile, and his strong heartbeat — I figured that meant he had a lot of love inside of him. And while he said he didn’t know what he was doing with the baby, he could always put him to sleep. He had this special hum for Damian — he would hum and rock him. It was almost like a prayer came true.”

In 2016, Lamont moved to Philadelphia. The family now lives in Glenolden, Delaware County.

In December 2017, Lamont and Kayshon had just fastened Damian into his car seat when Lamont knelt in the knee-deep snow. “What are you doing?” Kayshon asked. “Kayshon Wilson, I love you so much,” Lamont said. “Will you marry me?” She would, but it would take some time.

“It took so long, I always felt like I got to propose again and again,” Lamont said with a laugh.

In 2018, he arranged flower petals in a heart on their bed, placed a ring in the center, and asked Kayshon to come upstairs. Again she said yes.

The following year, son Legend, now 4, was born.

In 2020, the couple proposed to each other in the form of a long conversation about the wedding they wanted to have and the future they wanted to build. “Before, we had never really talked about marriage; Lamont just proposed,” said Kayshon. “This one was more exciting because I really saw the future.”

For years, Kayshon had experienced bouts of illness and pain. She sought answers from doctors but didn’t learn anything concrete. Lamont drove her to the emergency room many times. “It scared me a lot because I didn’t know how to help her,” he said. Back at home, he would take care of the kids, comfort her, and make soup until she felt better again.

When Kayshon became pregnant with a third child, she felt dramatically worse. “I said to the doctor, something is not right with me. I’ve been pregnant before and I know what to expect and something is wrong.”

The child they first named Leo was born a month early. His delivery did not bring relief. “I felt like I was dying,” Kayshon said. “I was lying on the hospital floor in so much pain, begging for somebody to help me.” The pain medicine she was given did not help, but one doctor — someone she had never seen before — did.

“She looked into my eyes and said we need to get this woman an X-ray and ultrasound,” Kayshon remembers.

A tumor, larger than her baby boy, was growing on her ovary. Its removal brought immediate pain relief. Kayshon and Lamont changed their baby’s name to Luca, in honor of the doctor. Luca is now 1.

Testing revealed that the tumor on Kayshon’s ovary was caused by stomach cancer that had metastasized. Her treatments continue, including a June surgery that removed her second ovary and created a stomach bypass so that she can eat without pain. After she fully recovers, she will undergo chemotherapy.

Prior to Kayshon’s surgery, Lamont worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He left that job to become a home health aide, a position that gives him more flexibility to care for his family.

Earlier this year, the couple applied to the local chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding, described on its website as “a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit that grants weddings and vow renewals to couples facing terminal illness or life altering health circumstances.” The couple was selected, and local wedding industry professionals donated goods and services.

Kayshon and Lamont married at Collingswood Grand Ballroom, also the site of a reception for 50 guests.

Zupenda Davis, owner of Shining Moments Event Planning, helped craft a ceremony in which the bride and her father, Perry, walked down the aisle at the beginning. “I wanted to see my kids,” Kayshon explained.

Damian and Legend were “ring security,” and Luca walked down the aisle with his dad. The officiants, Victor and Crystal Cobbs, led the couple through vows, but then they added their own. Kayshon told Lamont all she wanted was a place in his big heart. “We are one,” he told her — and she should know she already has 90% of his heart, anyway.

The couple had a small table in the center of the action. And Lamont got Kayshon to get wild on the dance floor. “She did the Cupid Shuffle,” he said, delighted.

At some point, the couple plans to honeymoon somewhere “out of the country, with blue waters, away from civilization,” said Lamont. Kayshon has her eye on Thailand.

They look forward to Kayshon’s recovery and returning to closer-to-home adventures: zip lining, jet skiing, indoor skydiving, and making music together — Lamont finally got Kayshon into the studio with him, where they recorded a song they wrote together, “God.” Most of all, they will enjoy their biggest adventure — family.

“I want to see us all grow together, to learn from each other, to love each other. I want to spend more alone time with Kayshon. I want to see my kids grow to become the successful men I know they will become,” said Lamont.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know Lamont more as my husband. To spending more time with him and our children, to watching Luca grow up and start talking and playing with his brothers,” said Kayshon. “I’m looking forward to more birthdays.”