Rosemary Smathers of Waynesville, also waiting for a dialysis patient, decided to introduce the two.
"I thought they looked lonely by themselves," Smathers said. "Everybody needs somebody... doesn't matter how old you are. I know, because I've been there.
"Then one day I said to papaw - that's what everybody here calls Burt - 'Papaw, why don't you ask Willie out?'" Smathers related.
Papaw did. Thus began the seniors' whirlwind romance. On their first date he took her out to eat at Shoney's in Waynesville.
"That was the night of the five fish," Fleming recalled.
Killian explained, "They brought Willie this plate with five big ole fish on it. We looked at it and said, 'Lord, have mercy. No 10 people can eat that much fish!'"
From eating out they progressed to driving around the country roads. "We like to go riding to places we've been curious about," Fleming said. "There's probably not a road around that we don't know."
Here Killian, a former truck driver for RC Cola, clearly had the advantage. Even after retiring from a lifetime of driving, Killian still loves to get behind the wheel. He must. Every other day now he drives from his home in Murphy to Fleming's home at Lake Junaluska, about an hour and a half trip.
"When we get married next month we plan to just go loafering and traveling around. I told Willie, "You've not rode nothing yet,'" said Killian, who describes his future bride as "a wonderful lady and an out-of-this world cook. When she cooks, man, do I eat. Everything she cooks is great, but now her biscuits are extra special. I'll bring leftover ones from her house home with me and I eat every last crumb."
Fleming responded, "He's hungry, every hour on the hour!"
But Killian claimed, "I'm just healthy and I have a healthy appetite. I don't take a pill of no kind, and my blood pressure is perfectly normal."
Both Killian and Fleming had wonderful first marriages, they said. Killian was married 60 years; Fleming, 45 years.
"I've lived by myself for the past 13 years," said the bride-to-be. "It's not too much fun. But I always argued to the very last that I'd never get married again. I thought I'm right where I'll be until I die. Then here's Burt and he just knocks me for a loop. He's so kind and generous."
Her future groom had similar thoughts, "I never had any thought of getting married again until I met Willie. I just fell head over heels - that's it in a nutshell. I enjoy life, but since I met her, I enjoy it more. We share a lot of interests."
All of their children - he has six children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; she has two children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren - are "tickled to death" with the couple's late-in-life romance.
"I feel so young again," said Fleming, who hasn't picked out her wedding dress yet. She's leaning towards maybe a light blue suit. Meanwhile, Killian has a gray suit all lined up for the big event, which will take place 2 p.m. Saturday, April 8, at Lake Junaluska Assembly.
"He's a Baptist, but I've about made a Methodist of him," she said.
Neither will reveal where they are going on their honeymoon.
"That's our secret," is all they'll say.
Fleming said she's getting "quite a kisser. Oh, law, he doesn't want to quit."
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