Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
As we’ve often heard from alumni who met their spouses at Creighton, the circumstances that led to their first interactions on campus were memorable, and a bit serendipitous.
That is Creighton’s matchmaking in action. You can’t predict it or really even plan for it.
Sometimes, one date is all it takes. But sometimes, it takes a while for that date to actually take place.
Check out these four alumni love stories:
Bibbidi bobbidi Bluejays
Nina Noronha, BA’18, MED’21, and Brian Boerner, BSBA’18
They’d spent a full week paired together as partners for Homecoming Court activities during their senior year, matching their costumes to resemble Cinderella and Prince Charming and riding the golf cart float that Brian had decorated to resemble a pumpkin carriage. Nina was named Homecoming Queen!
And that could have been the end of their fairy tale.
But to cap the week, after the Court ate dinner together and roamed around the Old Market, they heard Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl” starting to play. Brian asked Nina to swing dance.
It was their moment. No glass slippers needed.
A couple days later, they were meeting for lunch on the Mall. Then came their first official date — a car ride where they laughed and talked and enjoyed their favorite tunes on a trip to visit the Holy Family Shrine, a serene church and retreat located west of Omaha.
“The next few months were full of cheesy text messages, meaningful conversations, and lots of rants about Creighton watering the sidewalks,” Nina said.
After graduation, with Nina in New Mexico and Brian in Omaha, the two grew their relationship over FaceTime calls and weekend trips. It was two years before Nina found a job back in Omaha.
Not too long after Nina moved, in November of 2021, she and Brian visited the Holy Family Shrine again. This time, Brian proposed. And Brian surprised Nina even further that night with a family and friends dinner to celebrate. They were married in April 2023 at St. John’s Church.
Speaking from the heart
Molly Campbell, BA’06, JD’09, and John Campbell, BSATS’04
Molly didn’t think it was a date. They ate dinner, saw Chicago and sang karaoke together. But John had never explicitly "labeled" the evening.
He just kept insisting, rather weirdly, that he wanted to drive out of his way to drop Molly off at the end of the night.
She and John had been friends for nearly a year — a homesick Molly had one day randomly spotted a middle school friend on campus, quickly accepted an invitation to attend a Creighton Speech and Debate Team meeting and met John there.
They practiced together inside the Humanities Building (Dowling Hall), traveled with the team on weekend trips for speech competitions and hung out with the group. (John and Molly were both state speech champions!)
So, that one evening at karaoke, when one of their speech teammates showed up and joined in, it just felt like so many other fun nights…
But, the next day, suddenly, it clicked for Molly.
Was that a date?
John said it was. And Molly immediately asked for a do-over. She wanted to be clued in! They ate dinner at John’s apartment and watched X-Men – so they could then be ready to see newest X-Men movie playing in theaters.
That was how it began. John graduated two years ahead of Molly and moved to Wisconsin, but their relationship continued to blossom. They were married in July 2006, two months after Molly earned her undergrad degree.
Molly and John have since lived together in Omaha and San Antonio. Their family, which includes three kids, now resides in Toronto — which is fitting because Chicago, X-Men and X-Men II all were filmed at a famous castle in the city called Casa Loma. The perfect place for their next date.
Endless love
Diana (Fox) Twidwell, BSN’72, and Joe Twidwell, BA’72, JD’75
At the beginning of their sophomore year, Joe spotted this attractive woman with a bubbly personality who was sitting one row in front of him in a theology class taught by Father John Fitzgibbons, SJ.
It took a few weeks, but Joe finally built up the courage to ask Diana to coffee. She agreed.
After a couple months of meetups at the Toddle House Cafe (and the pleasant walks from campus to its location near 22nd and Douglas Streets), AND after Diana actually attended a homecoming concert with someone else, Joe decided it was time to make his intentions clear.
A real date. Diana was thinking the same thing.
Their connection grew from there — Joe drove Diana back home for their Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, and they detoured both times for dinner and a movie. A few months later, Joe brought takeout pizza to Diana’s dorm room. When she opened the box, she saw the engagement ring.
They married on July 31, 1971, at St. John’s Church. Diana has since retired as an associate professor of nursing at the University of South Dakota, and Joe is entering his 50th year as a lawyer. But they made sure to return to Creighton’s campus often over the years.
Joe said there’s more than 20 of his siblings, kids, nieces, nephews and spouses who attended Creighton. Including his parents.
Joe’s dad, Joseph Twidwell, BS’46, MD’48, got drafted during World War II and reported to Fort Hood to train with tank destroyers. Before deploying, he received a call that he had been accepted to Creighton’s medical school and he’d been ordered to complete the program. At Creighton, he met Joe’s mom, Virginia Twidwell. They were married for 59 years until their deaths in 2008.
“We all have so much from Creighton to be thankful for,” Joe said.
Ooh, Bluejay, I love your way
Cindy (Ludwig) Pawlow, BSN’90, and Jeff Pawlow, BSBA’91
Jeff and Cindy had always been in each other's orbit, through Greek life events and mutual friends' gatherings. Cindy lived directly below Jeff in Swanson Hall, where her roommate grew increasingly irritated by his synthesizer jam sessions. Jeff even owed Cindy a dinner — the deal was struck at a bowling outing once, when he bet her a meal if she followed up her two consecutive strikes with a third (she nailed it!).
But everything changed one day on the Mall.
Jeff was sitting on a bench with a friend when Cindy jogged by and stopped to chat. It started like any casual college conversation — but something unexpected hit Jeff square in the heart.
“In that moment, I swear, the Lord whacked me on the head with a Wiffle ball bat,” Jeff said. “It was like, ‘That's the woman you're going to marry.’”
The timing, however, was less than perfect. Jeff was kind of seeing someone else, and Cindy was mid-conversation with his friend making plans for an upcoming dance.
Eventually, Jeff found his moment — and cashed in that long-overdue bowling bet. They went to a movie, then grabbed a late-night bite at Perkins on Dodge Street. The conversation lasted until 2 a.m.
“I call that our first date,” Jeff said. “She claims it was just a free dinner.”
Call it what you will, it was the start of something real.
Soon they were a couple: attending Mass together, cramming for exams in the library, and showing up arm-in-arm at fraternity parties. Jeff even coached Cindy’s intramural flag football team all the way to the finals.
In August 1993, they married. Said Jeff: "The synth may be silent now — actually, it’s not, but that’s a whole different story! — but 32 years and four kids later, the harmony plays on!"
