Greg Smith, Maxine Barish Smith and Natalie
“My wife plans everything in advance, and I’m definitely not that
way,” he explained. “But I had this whole thing planned, which got
messed up at first because of her.

“So we spent the day in Newtown at the park, then I drive to Cher-
ry Hill to start retracing our steps from our first couple of dates. We
finally go to the coffee shop where we had our first date, then to the
place where I first told her I loved her, the parking lot at Ponzio’s.

“I asked her to marry me there. I thought it seemed romantic,
but she tells people, ‘He proposed to me in a parking lot.’”
A Speed Date
Newlyweds Continued from Page 13
“It feels like more than two years,” said Maxine Barish Smith.

“We’ve been through a lot in two years. Having a baby changes your
life. But I find we have a lot alike as we continue to be married. It
was actually better for us to wait until we were older.

“We’re both more mature. More financially secure. Luckily, we
have a lot of the same philosophy. We both come from the same
Jewish tradition and agree about most things, especially parenting.

But every day’s a new adventure.”
Sharing those adventures with his wife makes it more special.

“I wouldn’t have been able to get through losing my mom without
her,” Greg Smith said. “She was there for me.

“People think that you wait until you know someone and are sure
they’re the right one. But one thing I’ve learned is you’ll find out
reasons on top of reasons on top of reasons why you married the
person you did.

“But you won’t find them out for years.”
Perhaps by then she’ll appreciate the way her husband proposed.

THAT LASTED
Having been through the ups and downs of dating, Bill Furman
never thought he’d get married. Deena Freedman was accustomed
to single life, too, and wasn’t eager to give it up.

Both were in their late 30s when they met on a “speed” date, one
of those singles’ events where you talk to someone for a few minutes,
then move on to the next person.

Who’d have guessed it would last so long?
“I had a longtime girlfriend pass away and didn’t think I’d ever
get married,” said Bill Freedman, who works for an auto collection
company. “Because we were older, we didn’t let our parents influence
us. Even for our wedding [on June 14, 2015] we did what we wanted.”
Being older and more set in their ways gave them a better per-
spective. “I’m still continually surprised I found someone I wanted to mar-
ry,” said Deena Freedman, a high school math teacher. “I told people
for years I was very happy being single.

Their cake topper, depicting
their baseball team preferences
Bill Furman and Deena Freedman
14 OCTOBER 27, 2016
SIMCHAS JEWISHEXPONENT.COM




“I did what I wanted when I wanted to and didn’t have to answer
to anyone. But I like having someone to share things with. From the
beginning, I don’t think we had any secrets. We both expressed our
paths, so there were no real surprises.”
But there are compromises. Deena Freedman keeps a kosher
home, with five sets of dishes. One of them is for her husband, who
doesn’t keep kosher and eats treif.

He’s also a Mets fan, while she follows the Phillies.

“Keeper” IN THE (JEWISH) RYE
Rina and Michael Ehrlich named their 5-month-old son, Holden,
after the main character in one of their favorite books, J.D. Salinger’s
Catcher in the Rye.

Since he came into the picture following their Nov. 15, 2014 wed-
ding, much has changed.

“Everything before goes out the window,” explained Michael
Ehrlich who, as a 13-year-old, once attended the same Bat Mitzvah
as 11-year-old Rina. “It’s all for the baby.

“You put yourself last, as it should be. Otherwise there haven’t been
a whole lot of surprises. … But being able to watch Rina grow into a
bride, wife and mother has certainly grown my feelings for her.”
Those feelings are mutual for the woman he proposed to at the
end of a long scavenger hunt.

Michael, Rina and
Holden Ehrlich
See Newlyweds, Page 16
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OCTOBER 27, 2016
15