Trey Simms and Nicole Simms

[00:03] TREY SIMMS: Okay. I am Trey Simms I'm 47 years old. Today is November 1, 2023. We're in Mobile, Alabama, at Mardi Gras park. And today I'm doing this interview with my wife, Nicole.

[00:21] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Hello, I am Nicole Marshall Simms I'm 44 years old, and, yeah, I'm in mobile with you.

[00:32] TREY SIMMS: And we're here today. We're going to talk about how we met. And the way I remember it is we were. It was 2002, and I was in med school in Birmingham, and I either walked or rode my bike down the hill every day to go to class or go to the hospital, and I would go down 20th street and turn on University Avenue, and there was the coffee shop there, Lucy's coffee and tea. And I would look through the plate glass window and see the barista in there and just messing around, working. And I would go by and I'd keep an eye on her.

[01:19] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: I.

[01:19] TREY SIMMS: And then. But I don't drink coffee and don't really have. I'm not really a coffee shop guy, but I was like, someday I'm going to go in there and talk with her. And then one day, I went in, and you weren't there. Lucy was there. And I said, hey, is the girl who works here around? And she's like, not today. But she gave me a day when you'd be in next. And so I thought I would come in, and I didn't really have a plan on what to say when I went in, so I just kind of fumbled through it. Do you remember? Is that.

[01:56] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah, you came in and you said, hey, I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be leaving for a while, but I'll come back, which is true. Okay. Have fun wherever you're going. Person I've never met.

[02:11] TREY SIMMS: Strange weirdo. No, I was just. I was just know. Trying to make my intentions clear, which I obviously did a great job, because, yeah, I was going to be away. I was going to do a rotation for two months, but I was like, I didn't want to wait for the next two months. I was ready to do it then to, like, come in and say something, I guess.

[02:32] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Break the ice.

[02:33] TREY SIMMS: Yeah. And so then I did come in, what, two months later, and I can't remember, I ordered something.

[02:45] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Orange juice.

[02:45] TREY SIMMS: Orange juice, yeah. And asked if you would. If you wanted to go out on a date, and you said you couldn't because you were doing something with your hair or your grandmother.

[02:55] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: I was going to New Orleans to see my grandma.

[02:57] TREY SIMMS: All right. Right, sure.

[02:59] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: You tell everyone that's washing my hair but I really.

[03:01] TREY SIMMS: That's what it felt like. That's what it felt like. But in the meantime, you had been, like. You had your own experience on the other side of the glass, right?

[03:10] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. So you would walk by all the time, and you were tall and cute and had a big mop of crazy hair. And every time you went by, I would say, hey, Lucy, there goes my boyfriend. And we had a good laugh about that. And. Yeah. So, basically, I just. From my side of the glass, would see you going by and going, there he goes. He doesn't know I'm his girlfriend.

[03:40] TREY SIMMS: But that's what's funny. When I was in that rotation at Tuscaloosa, I was telling Brian Fuller that, well, when you come back, that girl's gonna be my girlfriend. Cause he was gonna be back in six months or so, and I was already talking about you that way. And. And then, you know, sure enough. But then we should probably also talk about what? Our first date. First date. First date. We went out to Soliluna restaurant, right? And we drew on the paper. Tablecloth. It was paper. It was paper.

[04:14] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: It was. Okay.

[04:15] TREY SIMMS: Yeah.

[04:17] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: You were showing me what your ideal bridge would be, which was a knife and fork.

[04:22] TREY SIMMS: No, it was a school. It was my idea for a school where the scoop of the spoon would be the auditorium, and then the fort could be three different hallways for, like, different grades or different classrooms.

[04:35] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: There was a bridge, for sure.

[04:36] TREY SIMMS: There probably was a bridge. I had a lot of really good ideas. I never did anything with for that.

[04:42] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: And then your friend who was on crutches and there with. And then he just left her at the table and came and hung out with us for a while, and eventually you said, hey, don't you have a date you should be getting back to? He's like, oh, yeah. Then he left and went back to her.

[05:01] TREY SIMMS: We must have been making it look like a good time.

[05:02] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. Oh, and then. So we had our second date, because I had a party the next night, and I said, I have this party tomorrow night, and if this goes well, then you're invited to come with me. And if this doesn't go well, then one of us should just pretend to be sick. But it was fun. So you went, and then that was kind of that. We just have been together ever since. Ever since.

[05:29] TREY SIMMS: Ever since.

[05:30] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. And I went away, like, a week after, and when I came back, you had left a pineapple on my door to welcome me back, and I was like, oh, that's so sweet.

[05:39] TREY SIMMS: That's what hooked you.

[05:40] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: That's what did it? It was the pineapple.

[05:41] TREY SIMMS: Oh, good. That was money well spent on that pineapple. And then that was the. That was the big start. And then pretty quickly after that, we were, like, full time couple. And then I graduated and moved to Philadelphia. And you stayed in Birmingham for a year. Well, not quite a year because you were abroad from part of it, too, right?

[06:10] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Mm hmm. I went to.

[06:12] TREY SIMMS: And then. Then we lived in Philly for a couple years, then we moved to Miami for a couple years, and then we got married. And then. That's probably another good thing to talk about, is that whirlwind where we moved all our. Packed up all our stuff in Miami and then moved it to here and put it in storage. Got married, and then flew to Madagascar for our honeymoon and then moved to Australia. Well, we came back here for three days. Right. It was Halloween. It was Halloween. And, um. Yeah. Moved to Australia for a year, and then came back here, and then haven't moved since we've been here for, what, 15 years. Two kids.

[06:59] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah.

[07:00] TREY SIMMS: Pretty good. Pretty good run we've got going here.

[07:03] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah.

[07:07] TREY SIMMS: I guess there's some details in between.

[07:09] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Some things happened in between.

[07:11] TREY SIMMS: Anything good you wanted to point out?

[07:13] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: No. No, I think that about covered it.

[07:16] TREY SIMMS: Those are the highlights.

[07:17] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah.

[07:18] TREY SIMMS: Okay. I feel like we're racing through this like we did it in record time.

[07:25] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: That's okay. It's okay. We can tell smaller stories later.

[07:29] TREY SIMMS: Yeah. Well, the other thing that I wanted especially for you to talk about here is grandma Annie and all of her funny quotes.

[07:40] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Oh, that.

[07:44] TREY SIMMS: So I'll start with that. So, your grandmother, Annie Marshall.

[07:48] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yes.

[07:48] TREY SIMMS: Who lives in Fort Lauderdale?

[07:50] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: She does.

[07:51] TREY SIMMS: And when we moved to Miami, we didn't have a place to stay yet, so we stayed with her for a little while.

[07:58] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yes. We stayed with Grandma Annie in Fort Lauderdale, unmarried, in her spare bedroom for two weeks. And she was the best roommate ever.

[08:10] TREY SIMMS: Yeah, she was awesome.

[08:13] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: And the rest of the family thought that you must be all right because Grandma Annie let you stay.

[08:19] TREY SIMMS: She had never let any of your uncles or anyone else bring home a non spouse and stay with her.

[08:25] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: That's right. That's right. You got to. So, one of us is pretty special.

[08:30] TREY SIMMS: Yeah.

[08:31] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Probably me, maybe you.

[08:32] TREY SIMMS: Maybe it's the combo. It's the pair of us together. Undeniable force. But she was hilarious. Right? So of the many things she talked about, like, she would say, call tap water city gin.

[08:45] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yes. And we came in one day, and she was on the phone with the utility folks, telling them that they were sticking her up without a gun.

[08:54] TREY SIMMS: That's right.

[08:54] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Because her bill was too high. Yeah.

[08:57] TREY SIMMS: And she liked to talk about the, you know, south Florida, like, don't go out in your tee string.

[09:05] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yes. At the beach. But she could go out in one if she wanted to.

[09:10] TREY SIMMS: She still might.

[09:11] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. Auntie Mary Alice was sweet as honey, but the bees don't know it. Yeah, she has some zingers.

[09:18] TREY SIMMS: Yeah. And even now. So now that she's 100 and, you know, not very lucid anymore, but last time we saw her, she still was. We're still quoting her now, the only thing she would say is, okay, then. Okay. Okay, then. And that, like, the way she said it was like she could mean 50 different things with just how she said it.

[09:38] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah.

[09:39] TREY SIMMS: Like when you. When you grabbed her hand and she said, okay, then. Okay.

[09:44] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. Which means back off.

[09:46] TREY SIMMS: Layoffs.

[09:46] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I guess a way to bring that all together is that I'm really grateful that, you know, we had children who got to know my grandmother, who I'm really close with, and they'll remember her.

[10:04] TREY SIMMS: Yeah.

[10:04] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah.

[10:05] TREY SIMMS: That's pretty amazing, knowing your great grandmother.

[10:07] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah. Okay, well, I think we should wrap it up. Trey, what do you think?

[10:13] TREY SIMMS: Short and sweet. What do you do? Five minutes? Ten minutes. Ten minutes. Okay. Okay. That's what we were here for. Well, thank you, Nicole, for doing this with me. I feel like our story is very special to me, and I'd like for it to be recorded, and there being some, like, long term, like, record of us.

[10:40] NICOLE MARSHALL SIMMS: Yeah, it's. It's. It's been great. And one day, our very sentimental daughter Margot might come looking for this recording. So. Good job. Way to set it up.

[10:54] TREY SIMMS: I'm trying.