In the winter of 1979, DeSande was a freshman at high school in northern Illinois, close to Chicago. “It gets really cold there,” she says. “One day I was walking to school with no gloves on. I was carrying all my books and art supplies but my hands were freezing.”
That’s when she spotted Steve, who lived in the same neighbourhood. “I was a senior at the time but I recognised her,” he says. “I saw she had no gloves and asked if she wanted help carrying her things.” She declined his offer, but when an icy blast of wind caught her off-guard, DeSande changed her mind. After that, they became friends and he waited at the corner of her street to carry her books each morning. “I was always making sure to look out for her,” he says.
