Dear JDate,

Russ works with Gilda’s Club of South Florida. He did something similar for the American Heart Association in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Betsy was an avid New Yorker. No one ever thought she’d leave the city. She worked as a marketing department head for Brown Raysman LLP and then moved to Toronto to do the same for Aird & Berlis LLP. No one could believe it. How could she –the quintessential New Yorker — go North? She lived in Toronto for 2 ½ years and loved it. She was the networking queen and made many, many friends. Due to her dad’s ill health, she decided to be closer to her folks who had recently left New York and moved to Florida.

Along the way, her mom had a heart attack. Betsy, her brother, her sister and her uncle went to Florida to help out. While she was there, she decided to try JDate. She was very cautious about it, but knew that it could work. She wanted a partner to play tennis with or to run with or just someone to talk to (besides all of the older folks in Florida!).

Simultaneously, Russ moved to Delray Beach from Marblehead, Massachusetts and was doing the same. When he called Betsy, she just figured it would be another one of those guys. But when they met, they had a wonderful time jet skiing and talking.

They spent the next five days together while she was visiting her folks. They then communicated by email and phone, met in Chicago for a few days and then Betsy came to Florida in late November to look for work. She was unsure about the future (though he wasn’t), and she moved into his home on January 16, 2005.

What followed was unbelievable. Betsy started working at Adelphia Communications and then the hurricanes hit! Charley and Frances!! They rescued Betsy’s parents from their home in Boynton Beach (her dad was disabled). Two days after Frances, Betsy’s dad passed away, suddenly, on September 11, 2004. Not only was this a tragic event, but Betsy had lost her good friend Margaret Echtermann in the towers on September 11, 2001. Just about then was when they got engaged.

Betsy’s sister-in-law Louise asked Betsy how she would like the rabbi to refer to Russ at the funeral. Russ said, ‘I’m comfortable with being her fiancé.’ So that’s the story. At the funeral, it was very touching when the rabbi referred to them in this way. Everyone looked up and smiled.

Betsy and Russ were married on Saturday, April 2, 2005 in Ft. Lauderdale, Forida at the Riverside Hotel. They had about 160 people from all over the country.

Betsy & Russ
Delray Beach, Florida