When Love Arrived

A dozen Bergen women recall the moment when they met "The One."

Did you and your partner “meet cute”—or clumsy? Did you lock eyes with your eventual spouse when he first appeared before you—or lock the door? We’re all familiar with the throbbing pulse and butterflies in the stomach that are supposed to accompany the first glimpse of a lifelong lover. But sometimes life forgets to follow the script. Someone who is going to stir your heart can begin as an annoyance (it’s a rom-com staple) or even a person you don’t particularly notice. Science prescribes no mandatory meeting style for successful marriage. All kinds of beginnings can be happy ones—if they lead to happy endings. Here’s how love stories started (from the woman’s point of view) for 12 Bergen couples:

MIRIAM AND STEVEN YU, ORADELL:

“It was January 2005, and we were both working at LG Electronics. He was in General Affairs, and I was in Product Management. I needed his help with something, so I called in to his department to make the request. I was so surprised when within minutes of making my request, he ran down with what I needed. Unfortunately, it was the wrong thing, but in that moment something had clicked. We barely knew each other, but I was secretly excited that I’d have another chance to interact with him. “Coincidentally, mutual co-workers were having a gathering that night for a friend’s birthday, and we were both set to go. We were in our 20s and having the best night. At one point, we went outside to talk. Now if you know Steven, when he’s had enough to drink, he begins to rap. So we sat outside in my car, and mid-conversation, he starts doing his thing for a good hour or two, and I thought it was the funniest thing. After that night, we literally hung out every day. “By May of 2006, we wanted to move in together, but as our Korean culture dictated, it was still very taboo. But I thought my parents might be open to it. So after dinner one night, we gathered in the living room, and Steven told my parents he loved me very much, and we would really like it if they gave us their blessing to live together. Without missing a beat, my dad blurted out, ‘No!’ Then he said, ‘You two are clearly in love, so why don’t you get married first?’ “On July 2, 2006, Steven proposed to me at the first annual Fourth of July fair at the old Overpeck Park. We got married three months later at The Manor on October 15, just one day after his 30th birthday. We just celebrated our 17th anniversary together, and in those years, life has taken us on many ups and downs, and the most unexpected twists and turns. There were some tough times, and many more times of uncontrollable laughter, and the one thing that remained steady through it all is our support for one another, and our ability and desire to pivot and walk through it together. That and the fact that he’s still at LG almost 20 years later.”

DANIELA MUSANO AND CHRISTOPHER SPLIEDT, EMERSON:

“My husband and I dated in our 20s, but I broke up with him. I wasn’t ready for the commitment and all that came with a relationship. I married someone else when I was 27, and that marriage didn’t work out. The year after my divorce, we reconnected, started dating, got engaged and then married! I was 35. He is the best husband and stepfather, and father to our total of three kids. We are not a ‘typical’ family. My oldest is from my first marriage, we adopted our middle son, and three months after bringing him home, I got pregnant after a long battle with unexplained infertility. Eleven months later, our youngest daughter was born. Life is full: I own a spa in Ridgewood, and he is a children’s book author/illustrator.”

LYNNE AND SEAN DAVIS, ALLENDALE:

“We met in Sint Maarten at the age of 16 during our annual family Easter vacations. (His family was from Upper Saddle River, mine from Emerson.) During our senior year, in 1987, he asked me to the Don Bosco Senior Prom. (I attended Emerson Junior/Senior High.) I borrowed a white dress from a classmate, and the rest is history. Despite attending two colleges in Pennsylvania that were three hours apart, we dated and married in 1990 at age 25. We’ve been married 33 years and have known each other for 42. We grew up together and have a beautiful family and wonderful friends all over Bergen County. We are blessed.”

AMY DEBELLIS AND ZACH WEISSMAN, FAIR LAWN:

“We’re getting married next year. I was in a relationship with a different man more than 20 years ago. He introduced me to another couple, and we would get together a few times a year. After several years we broke up. Right before COVID hit, I received a call from the male spouse of this couple, who told me they were getting divorced and he needed a home. I’m a Realtor so that’s why he called me. I didn’t sell very much so I referred him to another agent, and he did purchase a home. He asked me if he could stop by for a minute, and I said OK. “He walked into my apartment, kissed me, and said, ‘I’ve wanted to do that for more than 15 years,’ and then he just walked back out the door! We fell head over heels in love and recently got engaged in front of our grown children—at over 60. I had been single for more than 11 years and never thought I could find love again, but when it is meant to be, it really is!”

RACHEL AND JOHN FUDA, FRANKLIN LAKES:

“I’d just gotten out of a very serious relationship and wanted to take some time for myself—to be alone. I met John out one night for a friend’s birthday but we didn’t talk much. It wasn’t until the next time I saw John that we really had a conversation. I was bartending at a sports bar for the Giants game, and he came in. He was there all day, and we talked all day long. I really didn’t think anything of it, but we did exchange phone numbers and began texting. He would come visit me wherever I was bartending, and he kept asking me out on dates. I thought he was such a nice guy but emotionally, I just wasn’t in that place. Then one night he came into the bar and he said, ‘Listen, go out with me one time. If you don’t have a good time you never have to talk to me again.’ I agreed, and I had a fantastic time, because here I am almost eight years later, married to him with three wonderful kids. Sometimes the best things come along when you least expect them.”

NATALIE AND OBIE MCKENZIE, ENGLEWOOD:

“Twenty-five years ago, Obie was a Wall Street exec and I was a personal trainer and wellness coach. He sought me out, but I catered to female executives and turned him down. Well, he didn’t take no for an answer, and I relented. For a year in what can be called a refined form of polite persistence, Obie managed to transition from being merely my client to becoming my suitor. Talk about romantic gestures: leaving a Jamaican breakfast at my door and planting flowers in the flower bed outside my apartment while I was away. I realized that he was going to be a permanent presence in my life. We’ve traveled hand in hand across the globe, strolled along numerous beaches and raised toasts in some of the finest restaurants. And he even serenades me with love songs.”

PAULA AND RON HALL, TENAFLY:

“What does a kid from Brooklyn with Jamaican parents have in common with a Bronx-born girl from a Guyanese household? An innate love for food! We met in a crowded party in New York City, and all we did was chat about our favorite dishes and restaurants. These conversations quickly led to day-and-night-long food tours around the tri-state and internationally. Our shared passion not only led to a love story but also fueled a deep appreciation for tasteful international cuisine and culture. This culinary connection laid the foundation for Czen Restaurant and Bar in Englewood, where Caribbean and Asian flavors unite in a modern fusion, blending authentic tastes from both cultures, and that’s us to a T.”

ELIZABETH AND CHRIS KAPLANIS, RIDGEWOOD:

“I quit my corporate job in 2009 to follow my dream of becoming a triathlon coach, where you basically help ordinary people do something extraordinary. I was guest-speaking at an adult triathlon training camp in June 2010 in Lake Placid, N.Y. Enter Chris Kaplanis, a 5-foot-6 camper training for his first Ironman triathlon. He was kind, funny, very fit, three years younger, very handsome, oh, and very short for my 6-foot self. “It would never work. He doesn’t date tall gals. And I’d never date a short guy. “Until we rode our bikes together 100+ miles in the Adirondacks the next day. We stayed up all night laughing at each other and felt like we’d found our best friend. But—we could only be besties because short guys can’t date tall girls. “Well, that lasted a week. After leaving Lake Placid a few days later, we vowed to meet up again the following weekend in New Jersey. And we did. I convinced him to quit his corporate job at GE Capital and join me in my triathlon coaching business. “We were engaged 10 months later, and married 10 months from then. We’ve been coaching triathlon together full time for 13 years. We have two beautiful children. And guess what? I even wear high heels some[1]times. We got over the height difference after about a week. We are best friends, business partners, and love everything about our unique career.”

IRINA AND ALEXANDER AVNUKOV, HILLSDALE:

“We met at my best friend’s wedding, and it was love at a first sight for both of us. He was living in Germany at the time, but we made it work and we’ve been inseparable ever since he came here and we tied the knot. We just celebrated our 13th anniversary in December.”

PATRICIA AND BOB JUDGE, MAHWAH:

“My husband and I were married 50 years in May. We both graduated from the same high school a year apart; he was a superstar football player, and I was a very shy bookworm. We were ‘worlds’ apart! “I chose not to go to college and became a secretary, and he lost his football scholarship to college due to an injury. He got a sales job straight from high school and continued working there for over 47 years. I was in a hurry to be married, and against my parents’ will, got married at 19. It did not end well. So, at 21, I moved back home with no car, no driving experience and not much money. I found a position working as a billing clerk in an office nine blocks from home. Lo and behold, Bob worked there too. He came up to me and said “Hi, I am Bob Judge, where are you from?” I told him that I went to Eastside and graduated in 1965, and he said he’d graduated the year before and wondered if I’d heard of him. I said, ‘I think your name sounds familiar.’ “About three weeks later, he started taking me to work, as he passed that way every day, and we soon started dating. We married two years later in May, and in November I was pregnant. We wanted a girl and had a beautiful 8-pound, 10-ounce baby girl named Danielle. History repeated itself when our daughter was in high school. She didn’t date a particular football player named Brian Reid, but years later, started dating him after he came home from college and they were married in 2001 and have three sons. “On May 12, 2023, we renewed our wedding vows down in LBI in a little chapel in Spray Beach with a few family members and friends. We were so lucky to have gone to school together and married and to watch our daughter do the same thing.”

ELLEN AND EDWARD RAND, TEANECK:

“We met in a writing class at the New School in fall 1972, taught by the late, great Anatole Broyard. We started talking, had dinner in their cafeteria and he drove me back to my apartment downtown. We were friends for a couple of weeks and then more for a few weeks after that. We got married several months later in February 1973. It was probably a cavalier thing to do at the time, but here we are 50 years later!”

JUDIT AGOD AND ANDRÁS BALOG, DUMONT:

“I met my husband 26 years ago. I spent my early 20s working two jobs to save for college, and I decided to take a two-week vacation on Corfu in Greece to recharge. My sister and her then fiancé (now husband) joined me for a week of the trip, and we shared fun times. A young man working on the jetty on our beach invited us tubing and parasailing, and we gave it a try. Later that night, we ended up in the same bar, and we started talking and dancing. He walked me home that night to my hotel, we spent all night talking and met up every night after his work. He was late for work in the mornings and got fired from his job. I still had a week left of my vacation, and we decided to rent a motorcycle and travel around the island. We visited beautiful beaches, the mountains, small villages and spent every moment together. I was in love and told him if he felt the same, to come to the U.S. He traveled home to Hungary, sold everything he owned, bought a plane ticket to the U.S. and followed me. I would say it was love at second sight. “A year later, we got married in New York City, just a quick City Hall wedding, no ceremony, no wedding dress, no friends and no parents. In fact, our witness didn’t show up, and we needed to ‘borrow’ someone from the room next door. Both of our families live in Hungary and it was just us, in love. It was and magical. The following year our first daughter was born. A year later, our second, and all of a sudden we were a family of four. We bought a home in Dumont, where we still live. “Last year was very special for us. We’ve been married for 25 years, and we decided to finally have a wedding ceremony. With our three daughters and our oldest daughter’s fiancé, we traveled back to Corfu for a vacation, where we held a private ceremony with our family. Our two oldest daughters got ordained and officiated our wedding, which was super special. My mom walked me down the aisle to the soundtrack of Mamma Mia! , on the rear patio of our villa, surrounded by olive trees on a side of a mountain. Our girls read a beautiful blessing, after which my husband and I exchanged vows. We all cried and laughed, and we look forward to a repeat of this in 25 years.”