A fateful anatomy class game sparks love Melany López Schiller, MD’19, and Patrick Schiller, MD’19

MARRIED SINCE | March 23, 2019, one week after Match Day

Where they met: In their first-year anatomy class in 2015, the professor divided students into foursomes by randomly taping the name of a famous person or character to their backs. The students then had to try to figure out whose name was on their back and to which group they belonged. Patrick and Melany both had names of “Pokémon” characters, an animated game neither of them knew anything about. “I somehow figured out I was Pikachu. Then I saw the sign on the back of Patrick’s shirt saying he’s Bulbasaur. I said, ‘I found you! You’re the last one in our group!’ He looked at me confused. And that was our first interaction,” Melany recalled, laughing. “We became friends right away. We have very different personalities, so I’m convinced we wouldn’t have crossed paths if not for that anatomy class.”

First kiss: Outside The Promontory, Melany’s favorite hangout.

The proposal: After Thanksgiving with Patrick’s family in Rockford, Melany was yearning for some traditional dishes that weren’t served, such as sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top. So, Patrick cooked all day and recreated Thanksgiving dinner with her favorite foods and proposed after the meal.

Last-minute officiant: Two weeks before the wedding, they fired their reverend over clashes of opinions. While brainstorming who could fill in to officiate on short notice, they thought of Sonia Oyola, MD, Director of the family medicine clerkship at Pritzker and one of Melany’s mentors. “We had a hunch she was ordained, and she was!” Melany said. Oyola was ordained online in 2019 in order to officiate at the wedding of some University of Illinois medical school students.

Married in Bond Chapel: Oyola, a native of Colombia, led the service in both English and Spanish a big plus for Melany’s family, who are from Puerto Rico. “And she still kept it to a trim 30 minutes,” Melany joked. Oyola herself is married to a medical school classmate. Oyola said it was an honor and joy to marry the Schillers, and remembers Melany’s gorgeous wedding dress and the stunning Bond Chapel setting. “The love in the room was extraordinary,” Oyola recalled. “I love them both. They are so special. And they were so happy that day, they were just giddy.”

Where they work now: Melany completed her family medicine residency at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and is now a family medicine physician at NorthShore University HealthSystem. Patrick completed his internal medicine residency at UChicago Medicine and is now a nephrology fellow at Northwestern Medicine.