BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FLORENCE -- Troy and Michelle Kennedy waited seven years to get married -- tying the knot on Saturday, Sweetest Day.
Their first date had been on a Sweetest Day. They knew their marriage would last.
But the groom died before the honeymoon started. He was found dead in his sleep early Sunday of unknown causes.
"I waited a long time," Mrs. Kennedy said Monday.On what should have been the second day of her honeymoon, she was planning her husband's funeral.
Mr. Kennedy's brother, Dutch Kennedy, said the family doesn't know what caused Mr. Kennedy's death. An autopsy will be performed. "He was in perfectly normal health," Dutch Kennedy said. "They had just left the reception. They went home. They were supposed to leave for Tennessee the next morning."
Just hours before, Troy, 29, and Michelle, 24, said their vows at the Florence Christian Church, pledging to stay together until death parted them.
They celebrated their love with family and friends at a reception at St. Paul's Church in Florence.
The couple met on Florence's Dream Street, a strip of restaurants and bars popular with young adults.
Mr. Kennedy, an avid sports fan with romantic tendencies, had found his match. "He loved NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt," Dutch Kennedy said. "That's all he did on weekends."
Most times, Michelle was with him. Between races, there were Bengals games and softball tournaments. Mr. Kennedy, a 1988 Conner High School graduate and football player, was a sheet metal worker at Skilcraft Sheet Metal Co. in Burlington.
The wedding was supposed to open a new treasury of memories. The honeymoon in Gatlinburg would have provided the first deposits into the memory bank.
Now Mrs. Kennedy is drawing on the past seven years of sweetness.
"Our relationship was wonderful," Mrs. Kennedy said. "He was always joking and kidding. We were best friends."
