It started with a gentle tap on the shoulder. And then an irresistible smile. And then a mutual love of movies, from Alfred Hitchcock classics to The Big Chill.

Neither Sarah Barlow, M.D. (Medicine '89), nor her husband of 35 years, Perry Bickel, M.D. (Medicine '88), could have anticipated that their time as UT Southwestern Medical School students would transform their budding connection into a lifetime of love, partnership and family.

Their connection to each other – and to UT Southwestern – remains as strong as ever. Dr. Barlow is a Professor of Pediatrics, while Dr. Bickel is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology.

That smile

Their first face-to-face encounter is memorably engraved on the two, as if it happened yesterday.

“I distinctly remember talking to someone at a social function, and I felt a tap on my shoulder,” Dr. Bickel recalls. “I turned around, and it was Sarah. She smiled that magnetic smile of hers, and I just thought her smile alone was unbelievable – magical, actually. And nothing about her, starting with that smile, has changed – and I’ve known that smile now for 40 years.”

The two began their relationship about a year before arriving at UT Southwestern – he entered medical school in the fall of 1984, and she followed in 1985. They first met at a Yale Club of Dallas alumni reception, despite both having earned their undergraduate degrees at Yale without crossing paths.

Dr. Barlow moved to Dallas two years earlier from the East Coast to teach English at a prestigious private school. Meanwhile, Dr. Bickel, who graduated from Yale a year after her, was already set on pursing medicine. However, as a philosophy major, he needed to complete his pre-med classwork while working as a paralegal in a Dallas law firm.

When they met, he was in the process of applying to UT Southwestern, while she was deep into pre-med classes, preparing for the MCAT.

Dr. Barlow reminded Dr. Bickel that they had previously spoken on the phone, “and then, we just kept on talking from there,” Dr. Barlow recalls. Such was their instant attraction that Dr. Bickel instructed his roommate, who had driven him to the social event, to leave without him as he would “find a ride – with Sarah,” Dr. Bickel recalls.

“Yes, I thought he looked very pleasant, very handsome,” Dr. Barlow remembers. “I also remember that I had a classic 1980s perm, which was truly hard to forget.”

“In retrospect, I might have gone a bit creepy on her by asking for a ride with her,” Dr. Bickel says with a laugh. “But, in fairness, she did stalk me at that party. Just kidding!”

Movies and meals

A year before Dr. Barlow would enter UT Southwestern, she and Dr. Bickel were already dating, often socializing with Dr. Bickel’s new classmates.

“I was really hoping that Sarah would come to UT Southwestern,” admits Dr. Bickel. “I may have talked her up to then Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Bryan Williams.”

Their relationship flourished through a shared love of movies, from Rear Window and Vertigo to A Room with a View and Blue Velvet. They became regulars at Dallas’ Inwood Theatre, always seeking out the latest arthouse films.

And when they weren’t in the classroom or at the movies, they bonded over finding hidden gems that fit their student budgets. They still remember some of their favorites: Cremona Bistro for Italian, Bangkok Inn for cheap and delicious Pad Thai and Basel Chicken, Chez Girard for a reasonably priced three-course French meal, and Crystal Pagoda for dependable Chinese food.

Back at home, their tiny black-and-white television would often glow with St. Elsewhere and L.A. Law. “Yeah, every once in a while, we had to whack the set to keep the sound working,” laughs Dr. Barlow.

Sharing the rigors of med school

Their shared journey through medical school deepened their connection. Dr. Brickle remembers offering support as Dr. Barlow navigated her third-year surgery rotations.

“I recall feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all,” Dr. Barlow says. “I was exhausted and confused after only two days, but Perry was there to provide me guidance on how to structure my days and notes – as he had gone through it a year before. What we both shared as we went through UT Southwestern was a deep interest in science, but also in the fundamental caring of patients – the sheer humanity of it.”

Dr. Barlow admits now to having been relieved to make the transition from the classroom to the hospital clinical rotation – “something that Perry and I really shared: a fascination with patients and their diverse backgrounds.”

“What we both discovered by being in a relationship at UT Southwestern was how much we could help each other out emotionally, especially when one of us was dealing with a patient who didn’t present well,” Dr. Bickel says. “We could debrief each other, and we had this intrinsic understanding of what the other was going through and offer up that needed support.”

Outside of school, they surrounded themselves with a dynamic, diverse group of friends – some from UT Southwestern, others from different walks of life – that helped them cope with the mutually shared intensity of their med school lives. One spring break, those friends helped organize a spontaneous trip to the Virgin Islands. “We spent a lot of time solving all the world’s problems,” Dr. Barlow jokes.

When they needed a break from school, the couple would often escape to lakes like Lake Buchanan or Oklahoma’s Lake Murray, where they canoed, picnicked, and attempted – unsuccessfully – to fish.

“As med students, we were often on every third night,” Dr. Barlow says, recalling their grueling schedules. “We would end up staying all night in the hospital. Being with Perry made it all so much more tolerable. Being together was an especially important way of maintaining sanity. And that shared understanding between the two of us, which most other med students might not have had, helped us get through those highly stressful times.”

Just the idea that Dr. Barlow and Dr. Bickel would be able to see each other at the end of a draining hospital rotation helped them make it through. For Dr. Bickel, knowing he would see Sarah at the end of a grueling hospital shift made all the difference. “If I knew I’d get to see her that night, it helped me push through those times when feeling exhausted,” he says.

“I think if I had tried to get through it without Sarah, it would have been a completely different experience. So, in that way, I wouldn’t trade anything about what we experienced together.”

Med school to marriage

Dr. Barlow and Dr. Bickel married in 1989, just as he finished his internship and she started hers. She matched with Brown University’s pediatrics program in Providence, Rhode Island, while he began his internship, residency, and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. They settled in Mansfield, Massachusetts, allowing Dr. Barlow to commute south to Providence, while Dr. Bickel took the train to Boston.

Now, 35-years married, they’ve built a beautiful life together. Their daughter, Jessica Bickel-Barlow, 32, is a theater director and producer in London. Their son, Samuel Bickel-Barlow, 28, is pursuing a master’s degree in data science and public policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Dr. Barlow and Dr. Bickel share little doubt that UT Southwestern played an outsized role in bringing them much closer as they took on the rigors of medical school.

“We had resolved all sorts of challenges together,” Dr. Bickel recalls. “I honestly think that if we hadn’t been together at UT Southwestern – if Sarah had remained a teacher – our interests might have diverged much more. I attribute our staying together partially to that powerfully shared medical school experience, in addition to our shared values.”

“I’ll always be thankful that UT Southwestern admitted us and we were able to be around each other,” says Dr. Barlow “In going to med school together, it was so important to know what each of us as students was going through. All those powerful joint experiences helped us enormously grow what became our lifelong relationship.”

Dr. Bickel holds the Daniel W. Foster, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine.