Nick Coleman, Star Tribune | MN

Joan Kennedy kissed her husband, Richard Steele, after they exchanged wedding vows Friday at River Valley Christian Church in Lake Elmo. “Everybody wanted to care for Dick,” said Kennedy, who used to be Steele’s caregiver. Steele was struck with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, nearly 20 years ago.

When they heard of her engagement, lots of people, including friends and family members, tried to talk Joan Kennedy out of marrying Dickie Steele.

He was in a wheelchair. Unable to speak, fed through a tube, using a machine to help him breathe. With a grim prognosis.

Joan had known it might get complicated, right from the start.

"He had this fabulous smile, and a great twinkle in his eyes," she recalls. "The first thought that went through my mind when I met him was, 'Uh-oh, stay away from that one. He's trouble.'"

They met in 1999, when Joan showed up to begin work as a caregiver for Richard Steele, a formerly vigorous construction worker who was living at a St. Paul health care facility after being stricken with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Most people with ALS, a progressive neurological disorder, die within five years. By the time Joan met him, Dickie, now 53, had already defied some long odds, surviving for a decade and keeping his sense of humor and upbeat outlook alive.

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