It all started in September 2008. Saralee had been on JDate for a while. I had only been on the site for a few days. Sara had been out of town, visiting one of her sisters, who was in the hospital. She came home and noticed my profile, but since it was late and she was tired, she decided not to contact me that evening. I woke up and noticed that she looked at my profile, so I decided to check her out. What I saw intrigued me – a beautiful Jewish woman, of my age, from Milwaukee, at another law firm, sons in the same age range, similar politics, and similar religious observance, so many similarities. It was hard to believe. So, I left Saralee a message asking if she got enough of lawyers at work. She IM’d me, and we chatted that way for an hour or so, and then we got on the phone. As it turns out, we worked only blocks apart. We met at a restaurant midway between our offices for a glass of wine and some hummus. It was a beautiful evening, and the chemistry was immediate. We saw each other pretty much every day for the next couple of months. Sara joined me at my congregation (where I am the B’al tekiah) for the High Holidays, where we discovered that a friend of mine was her father’s cousin. I have never been so inspired blowing the shofar. I had the feeling my mother was watching us with approval.
It seemed to us and everyone around us that it was Bashert. I arranged to propose to Saralee with almost all of her family at my house (including her now deceased father) for a Chanukah party. I had a huge box wrapped up with several smaller wrapped boxes inside. The smallest box was a ring box. I told all of her sisters that the smallest box would have the ring; it didn’t – it had a dreidel, a bag of gelt, and a proposal. I had the ring in my pocket. Her answer was “Yes, we will marry you!”
We had our wedding at our house with about 200 of our closest friends and family. In addition to our rabbi and cantor from Congregation Emanu-El, Sara’s cousin, Phyllis (a rabbi) and her sister-in-law, Beth (a cantor) helped officiate. It was the perfect day.
We honeymooned in Italy, and we are now living happily ever after!
Michael and Saralee
River Hills, Wisconsin
Congratulations to a lovely couple. I am happy to read this success story on jdate. I am very happy to see that love can be found here. I wish the couple the best.
What a wonderful story it reminds me of my late husband and I ( he was an attorney). I am a widow now and have been on JDate for 2 years. I know that I have another Beshert out there. Thank you for your beautiful story. Much love and happiness to you always.
So, it does happen…Encouraging…I’ll keep,keeping on.