MUSC has connection to royal wedding

Although she’s related to Meghan Markle, Jade Koller won’t be wearing a fascinator during the royal wedding or even watching the festivities on TV. She’ll be in scrubs, working as a patient care technician at MUSC Health in Charleston, South Carolina.

“We’re like third cousins, fourth cousins, something like that. Our great-grandfathers were brothers. I’ve never met her but we are distantly related.”

That’s not all they have in common. Koller just had a wedding of her own, marrying MUSC Health nurse Zachary Koller. “We got married on my family’s ‘Markle Farm’,” she says, in Pennsylvania. Both she and her husband are from that state, as is Meghan Markle.

“Our day was probably a lot more relaxing than what she’ll face. We only had 100 guests. She has thousands, plus an entire country.”

Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, will be carried on live TV tomorrow morning. Two receptions will follow.

“We just had one reception,” Jade Koller says. “We had a choreographed first dance we worked really hard on and took dance lessons for. We did the Dirty Dancing lift and everything,” she says, referring to a scene in a movie where Patrick Swayze catches and lifts Jennifer Grey.

“And then just a normal dinner and the dancing to follow. We really didn’t do anything too out of the ordinary. Just the typical U.S. reception. It was great. It was awesome.”

She and her husband wish Markle and Prince Harry well. “Zachary and I love working at MUSC and always discuss ways we can have a positive impact on our patients’ and coworkers’ lives. It’s exciting to be associated with someone such as Meghan who has the potential to take the same mindset and have a positive impact on so many people’s lives.”