n 1955, as artist/portraitist Marie Wallace settled into her new life in Los Angeles, she began sketching a blond woman she saw frequently in the park. When Marie introduced herself to her subject, she was struck by the woman's blase, detached manner. She told Marie only that her name was Lila Taylor and that she hailed from Flint, Michigan. Marie eventually became Lila's roommate and introduced her to Dr. Richard "Dick" Grant Jr. and Dr. Jim Kelly (although normally nervous Jim had already met Lila from her past visits to Cedars Hospital.) Both men took Lila on dates. Dick found Lila amoral and sarcastic, whereas Jim saw in her his own blunt, no-frills qualities, and he liked what he saw. Jim and Lila played it cool at first, but Jim finally summoned the nerve to propose. Lila refused to be tied down, and Jim soon discovered the reason why -- she had tuberculosis. Jim stood by her and paid for her treatments, and in the two were married. The newlyweds moved to Chicago, where Jim took over his ailing father's medical practice.

Jim and Lila would return for Marie Wallace and Dr. Dick Grant's wedding ceremony in 1957 and Lila would tell her friend Marie that they would have to get back, to Chicago, after the ceremony because Jim and Lila had two children that they had left with a babysitter.