FAMILY & HOME
“That’s our first picture together, I guess,” Sydney said. “We were just
fated to each other for as long as we can remember.”
Just a few years later, Andy’s mother, Dr. Gigi Streiff - an OB-GYN
just like Sydney’s father - joined Philpott’s practice. It was at about the
same time when Andy started to really notice Sydney.
“I was called in as an emergency babysitter for her little sister, and
as I walked down the path to her house, Sydney happened to walk by,”
Andy recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s a very pretty girl.’”
As for Sydney, she didn’t think much of crossing paths with Andy in
their pre- to early teen years.
“I just remember him with glasses - awkward and gangly,” she said. “We
didn’t really have the same friends, but we would run into each other.”
The two eventually connected on social media, and arranged to see
a movie together. But the evening, which ended up with a couple of
Andy’s friends tagging along, didn’t turn out as planned.
“It was pretty comical with me and these three guys, who were
not used to talking to girls and didn’t really know how to handle the
situation,” Sydney noted, adding that Andy spent the entire evening
seeing out of one eye after accidentally rubbing out one of his contact
lenses. Despite it all, the two agreed to go on a second date, which led
to another…and another.
“It took about four dates for our first kiss,” Andy admitted. “I was so
nervous; I didn’t want to mess anything up. She was the one who asked
me to kiss her.”
At age 17, romance was certainly in the air for Sydney and Andy, but
their blossoming relationship would face a cruel twist in early 2010.
“We’d been dating for about three months, and we started noticing
Andy’s fingernails getting really pale, his skin was yellow, and he had
fainted after basketball practice,” Sydney explained.
Blood tests and other examinations soon revealed the grim diagnosis.
“My dad sat me down and told me, ‘It’s leukemia,’” Sydney said. “That
was the one thing I didn’t want - anything else but cancer. We were 17.
Who gets cancer at 17? We cried, and we were angry, and we yelled at
the world. There were a few times when it got pretty scary.”
Andy said they had to grow up - a lot - during those trying times.
“I even told her to leave. It was obviously a long road for me. I wanted
her to have as normal a high school experience as possible” he said. “But
she came to visit me every single day.”
Defying the odds, Andy recovered well enough to take Sydney to the
prom and to eventually graduate from high school. Their stars would
remain crossed through college, even after they took pains to ensure
one did not influence the other’s decision on a university. But their
desire for a small liberal arts college both led them to Sewanee: The
University of the South.
It was also during this time that Andy began showing signs of
improvement and by the end of sophomore year, doctors miraculously
declared him cancer-free.
Looking back, Sydney recalls a conversation with her mother about
her future with Andy.
“We were on a walk, and my mom asked me, ‘Do you see yourself
spending the rest of your life with Andy?’” Sydney said. “He was still in
treatment then, but I didn’t hesitate. I just answered, ‘yes.’”
There were many reasons, according to Sydney, that convinced her
Andy was the one.
“We complement each other in a lot of ways - it’s a true partnership,”
she explained, adding that their collective experiences through the
years give them a unique outlook on their lives as husband and wife.
“We never keep score. We’re here to support each other - that’s the
outlook we both share.”
What were the chances? For Sydney and Andy Streiff, they were
astronomical, but their stars aligned, making the impossible, possible.
SAVVY I SOPHISTICATED I SASSY
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