A Love Story with Heart & Soul

Co-Owner Halle Morse shares the legacy and love story behind opening Heart & Soul Veterinary Care with her husband, Dr. Rhuedel “Del” Anderson, right in the heart of Tucker.

My father is a veterinarian, and I married one. That sentence pretty much captures the arc of my life: past, present, and future. It connects my childhood in Cleveland, growing up in the halls of my father’s practice, with my life today in Tucker, Georgia, where my husband, Dr. Rhuedel “Del” Anderson, and I have opened Heart & Soul Veterinary Care.

It’s a story about legacy, community, and compassion. But at its core, it’s a love story: the love between two people, between families, and between humans and their animals.

Act I: Roots in Healing and Legacy

My earliest memories take place inside Warrensville Animal Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. My father, Dr. Evan Morse, was the first Black Veterinarian in the state and went on to serve the community for over 50 years. His practice became a cornerstone, where generations of families brought their pets and where I first learned what true dedication looked like.

I watched my dad’s patience with clients, his unwavering care for their pets, and how medicine could be about more than treatments and checkups. It can be about relationships, trust, and community. My mother, a classical pianist who taught piano, also managed the business side of the hospital. I can still remember helping her stuff reminder cards into envelopes, watching her juggle motherhood and management with grace. One of my most vivid memories is when my kindergarten class took a field trip to the clinic. My dad turned it into pure magic: handing out stethoscopes, even staging a mock exam. A class favorite, that trip definitely earned me cool points.

Looking back, I see how my parents shaped me in equal measure: my dad’s drive and discipline, my mom’s artistry and soul. Both are in me still.

Act II: A Stage of a Different Kind

While my family’s world was medicine, mine was music. From childhood community theater productions, I set my sights on Broadway—and made it there. After earning my BFA in Musical Theater from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, I leapt into the demanding world of professional performance.

I had the joy of performing as Lisa in Mamma Mia! on Broadway and as Minnie Fay in Hello, Dolly! on the National Tour, as well as in regional productions of Les Miserables and Rent. Over the course of a decade in the industry, I traveled to more than 75 cities across the U.S., bringing stories to life for audiences night after night.

My career also stretched into television, commercials, and behind-the-scenes roles: producing, stage management, and even working with the general management team of Hamilton. Performing taught me resilience and discipline. There’s nothing quite like the stamina required to deliver eight shows a week. It also instilled collaboration, connection, and the ability to show up fully for others. Storytelling and true presence translate everywhere, whether you’re performing under the lights or leading a team in business.

Act III: From Broadway to the Boardroom

Eventually, I stepped into a new spotlight. After earning my MBA from Columbia Business School, I joined EY-Parthenon, where I now serve as a Senior Director advising Fortune 500 companies on complex global transformations, especially in media and entertainment.

The shift from choreography to corporate boardrooms might sound dramatic, but to me, it made sense. Both the boardroom and the rehearsal studio demand vision, collaboration, and presence.

It was in this season of reinvention that I met Rhuedel (“Rhuedy,” as I affectionately call him), the veterinarian who would change everything.

Act IV: Enter Rhuedel

While my path zig-zagged between the arts and business, Rhuedy’s was steady, grounded in a lifelong love for animals. He grew up in Snellville, Georgia, not far from where the clinic is. While his sisters were in dance classes, he played football and the saxophone, which sparked his love of music early on. But his true calling revealed itself in the care and patience he felt for animals.

He pursued veterinary medicine with focus and compassion, earning his doctorate from Auburn University and celebrating his white coat ceremony with pride. From there, he worked in clinics in Florida and Georgia, cutting his teeth in urgent care and stepping into leadership as a lead veterinarian and medical director. Through it all, one dream remained constant: to care for animals while building a practice that served the people who love them. “Animals have a way of teaching us patience and empathy,” he says. “Caring for them means caring for the families who love them.” That’s who Rhuedy is: gentle, grounded, compassionate, and an excellent clinician.

When he and I met, we bonded over our love of music. I grew up with it through my mother’s piano and my time on Broadway; he through his saxophone and his love of soul. It’s no coincidence that our practice is named Heart & Soul. It reflects his heart for animals, my family’s legacy, and the music that brought us together. When we fell in love, it felt natural that our paths would merge into a shared dream: to build a practice where pets would be treated like family, and care would be delivered with both science and soul.

Act V: Creating Heart & Soul

That dream became reality in August 2025, when we opened Heart & Soul Veterinary Care in Tucker. We chose this community for its strong sense of neighborhood, a place where people know each other, where family-owned businesses thrive, and where community matters. From the beginning, it felt like the right home for our practice and for our own young family.

The ribbon cutting and open house confirmed it. Neighbors, local businesses, wagging tails, and wide smiles surrounded us, and almost instantly we felt embraced. Families stop by just to say hello, children peer around the desk to sneak glimpses of patients, and neighbors wave as they pass our doors. This is exactly the kind of place we dreamed of creating: a gathering place as much as a clinic. “Opening Heart & Soul has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream,” Rhuedy says. “I always imagined building a place where pets are treated like family. Tucker made us certain we chose the right home.”

Finale: A Love Story, A Legacy

From Cleveland to Broadway, Auburn to Tucker, our journey has been anything but ordinary. But through every twist and turn, our story has been anchored by love—love for each other, for animals, for community, and for the work we’ve built with Heart & Soul.

Even while co-owning the clinic and leading a full-time consulting career, the arts and advocacy remain an essential part of who I am. I still perform on occasion, but much of my energy now goes into serving on the boards of nonprofit and community arts organizations, championing access to arts education. To me, animals and the arts aren’t separate passions. Both are about connection, about making lives richer, more joyful, and more whole.

Now, as I write this, our daughter Ellington is just three months old. She’s growing up in the halls of Heart & Soul just as I once grew up in Warrensville. Exam room #5 even doubled as her second nursery in the weeks leading up to opening. Today, the sound of her laughter mixes with the jingling collars of patients in our lobby, along with the steady presence of our dog Hepburn, who has become our clinic’s unofficial mascot. Life feels beautifully full circle.

Heart & Soul isn’t just a clinic. It is, quite literally, our love story. And this community is where the next chapter begins.