‘IT’S ABOUT TIME!’

The Original Marathon Seafood Festival will always hold a special meaning for Brian Tewes and Lorna Sanchez. But after Saturday, it will be special for another reason as Sanchez happily agreed to spend the rest of her life with Tewes. The couple met in Miami eight years ago and first visited the Seafood Festival in 2015, after which they decided that the time was right to make the move to the Keys full-time.

“Lorna turned to me and said, ‘Can you do this now? We have the means, we have our health. Why wait until we’re retired?’” Tewes told the Weekly. The couple began looking at properties the next day with real estate agent Sam Williams and moved down permanently in 2017.

Tewes waited until the end of the Marshall Morlock Band’s Saturday set – they’re Lorna’s favorite local band, after all – to pop the question two days after her birthday.

Though the rumors have not yet been confirmed, the happy couple are in early talks to plan a potential Seafood Festival wedding next year.

From all of us at Keys Weekly, congratulations to Brian and Lorna!

No matter how many individuals appear in the pages of each edition of Keys Weekly, there are always so many more of our community members who deserve to be recognized. In an effort to shine a spotlight on more of the incredible individuals who live and work in these islands, Keys Weekly is proud to spotlight our Neighbor of the Week feature, dedicated to celebrating a community member with each issue. This week’s neighbor may spend most of her days at her job working for Bishop, Rosasco & Co., but most in the community will probably recognize her from her widespread volunteer work. She’s a Rotarian, a Chamber Ambassador and helps coordinate the Marathon Seafood Festival, BrewBQ and the Best of Marathon Awards – and we’re probably leaving out a dozen others.

KRISTINA HELMS

Administrative assistant, Bishop, Rosasco & Co. & volunteer extraordinaire

1) How did you come to the Keys? I was born and raised here.

2) What’s your hype song and your sad song? My current hype song is “Hold Up, Wait a Minute” by Trombone Shorty, Zhu and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. My sad song is “Take Me to the River” by Leon Bridges.

3) What is the funniest social media fight or rant you’ve ever witnessed? The best social media fight I’ve witnessed recently was on the “Key West Gravity Chronicles – Stuck to the Earth” Facebook page. (For the uninitiated, this page is full of hilarious photos of inebriated locals and tourists alike who find themselves, as the name suggests, “stuck to the earth.”)

4) If you could be any character from a TV or movie, who would it be? I would be the Little Mermaid.

5) Any brushes with death? I have a brush with death whenever I leave the house. I’m so clumsy.

6) What's the weirdest or funniest app on your phone? The MeowTalk Cat Translator.

7) What's one thing that is always on a menu, but you will never try? A tuna hot dog.

8) What's one thing most people never knew about you? I don’t like pasta.

9) Two truths and a lie. I have a green thumb, I’m not a morning person and I’m always on time. (Our last Neighbor of the Week, Landon, is in big trouble if he’s on a boat and loses sight of land.)

10) What's the best advice you've ever received or given? The best advice is “If they want to, they will.”

11) Would you rather: A) Every stoplight you ever come to for the rest of your life is red when you first get there, or B) Once per year for 24 hours, you turn into a loaf of bread? Bread! I love bread. (Editor’s note: Bread, but not pasta. Interesting...)

12) What’s one small thing you never want to live without? Running water. (Well played.)

13) The title of my autobiography would be … “Kristina: Like A Debutante.”