When It's
Meant To Be

Rob and Michele Davis
beat the odds in romance.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
StaffWriter

12/5
1997

74

IllArlen they started dating in
high school, they didn't
think one day they would
be married. Of course,
that was back when he wasn't Jewish
and they were just teenagers.
My, how things have changed.
Today, Dr. Rob Davis and his attor-
ney wife Michele are living happily ever
after with a golden retriever in a cute
house in Birmingham. But it wasn't
always easy.
They met in 10th grade Spanish at
West Bloomfield High School and start-
ed dating that summer. "We both failed
Spanish," says Michele. "The first time
we talked, we both got a D on a test."
"When we first started going out,
there was a lot of apprehension," says
Rob, who converted to Judaism last
year. Religion was always an issue.
Fast forward to college, with Michele
at Eastern Michigan and Rob in Ft.
Wayne, Ind. "I used to visit her all the
time," says Rob. Until he transferred to
EMU, that is.
And the rest is history. Kind of.
Living in close proximity, they both
worked at Michele's father's store in
Ann Arbor, Harry's Army Surplus. "We
got caught in the aisles or boot mom,
huKing and talking," he says. "We
weren't allowed to work together."
So it was love for a lot of years, and
then Rob moved to California for chi-
ropractic school. They thought it might
be over.
"When he left to go to California, I
thought we were saying goodbye," says
Michele. "I was miserable all the time.
One day out of nowhere I decided I
needed to be with Rob. It just hit me.
I didn't even care if I got into law
school [out there]. I called him crying
and said, 'I'm moving out to
California and if I come out, this is
going to be it, this is the big step.' He
was just like, 'OK.'"

"I was excited about it," Rob says
sheepishly.
"My parents realized the best thing
for me was Rob," says Michele, who did
a year of law school at the University of
Detroit.
Rob jumps in. "It was more dramatic
than that. First of all, she cared [about
law school]. I wanted it to be perfect
when she came out. I picked an apart-
ment, was already living in our apart-
ment. Five seconds in the door, she
screams at the top of her lungs. I
thought about [what] the neighbors
[must think], the first time I bring
home a woman, she's screaming."
Michele was screaming about an
answering machine message, accepting
her to the Santa Clara School of Law.
She now works at Capstone Mortgage
in Royal Oak.
But they weren't yet engaged. That
came later, in Yosemite National Park
"It was the first time I ever went
camping," says Michele. "It took my
breath away. There is nothing more
beautiful. Waterfalls, magical. We set up
our tent, [went] for a little walk to
Mirror Lake. You can see the mountains
in the lake."
"My nerves were freaking out at this
point," says Rob. "I wanted to find the
perfect spot, sit down."
They climbed out onto a stone, took
off their shoes and sat under the bril-
liant sun and blue, cloudless sky. The
snow-covered mountain tops reflected
in the lake, as they dipped their feet in
the water and Michele settled into sun-
bathing. But Rob's mind was racing.
"I had the ring in my pocket the
whole [four-hour] drive up there," he
says. "I kept looking down to see the
outline of it."
Michele reached for something in
the bag that Rob had been carrying,
with the ring zipped inside, but he
brushed her hand away and yelled,
"Don't!" She didn't know what was
going on.
"I pulled out the ring and said, 'I'm

Together, Rob and Michele opened
so happy we're finally here. I've been
Commerce Township-based Davis
waiting for this for so long."' She
Chiropractic in June, right after their
thought he was referring to the board
honeymoon to Cape Cod.
exams he had just taken.
It was a warehouse with-
"I said, 'No, you don't
out walls, and they designed
understand. This is the
moment.' She's like, 'I know' I
Michele and the office. "We spent five
days painting it ourselves.
said, 'You don't understand how
Rob Davis,
Pizza and wine, long nights
long I've been waiting for this.'
with Ozzie:
I put the ring in front of her
The life they covered in paint," Rob
were meant
recalls.
and said, 'Will you marry me?'
to live.
Then he went to the
She kept saying my name over
Jewish Community Center,
and over."
the National Council for
Rob, a graduate of Palmer
Jewish Women and Powerhouse
College of Chiropractic West, is follow-
Gym, "did some talks, spinal screen-
ing in his father's footsteps. When he
ings, talked about chiropractic,
was little, he accompanied his dad to
passed out brochures. People are
chiropractic seminars and played while
responding well."
his dad took notes. Some of it sank in.
In addition to his practice, Rob
"I was exposed to that way of think-
runs a clinic in Powerhouse Gym on
ing, the healthy way of living — I took
Orchard Lake Road Tuesday and
vitamins. Nutrition always interested
Thursday nights and Saturday morn-
me," he says.
Rob worked with his dad in
ings. Work is great, but "we never see
Colorado during the last quarter of
each other, or we see each other and
school. He has treated paying patients,
collapse by 9:45 p.m.," he says.
welfare recipients and street people.
That's OK. They have a decade of
Chiropractors "try to keep a balance"
dating, a May 25 marriage and what
between the muscular and nervous sys-
became a joint conversion to keep
tems, he explains. If you're a patient,
them going.
you better have patience, because Rob is
"It brought us extremely close
going to take you step-by-step through
together, spiritually," Rob says of his
diagrams, charts and thorough explana-
conversion to Judaism. "It made us
one, the final step to making us
tions of what he does. "Your body is a
kinetic chain, everything connected."
complete."

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