Mazel Toy!
Met
isa
,
Instant compatibility overcomes
some healthy skepticism.
DEBRA DARVICK
Special to The Jewish News
IIIVI bile Romeo and Juliet
were star-crossed
lovers, Jonah Siegel's
and Lisa Stone's
courtship has been graced by per-
fect stellar alignment.
Coincidence is the operative
word here. Or beshert. And it all
started with a 1996 phone call
prompted by quirky tangents.
Living in Detroit and working as
assistant to the general manager for
the Vipers hockey team, Jonah
received a phone call from his
brother Greg, who had recently
relocated from San Francisco to
Chicago.
Greg's San Francisco crowd was
peopled with Michiganders, one of
whom, Susan Jaffe, told Greab to
give Jonah the phone number for
Lisa Stone. Mothers Stone and Jaffe
had been friends for years. She rea-
soned, "Why not?"
"My first reaction was skeptical,"
Jonah recalled, "but I called Lisa
immediately and left a message.
She didn't call back and I thought,
`Well, I'll give it one more shot.'"
Lisa's build up was even less rosy.
"I had been on a few blind dates
that were not fun and had just told
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1999
52 Detroit Jewish News
my friends, 'No more!'
The next day Jonah called.
I had no idea the call was
coming. I couldn't even
understand his name. All I
caught was the name of
the friend who had given
him my phone number
and I was ready to kill her.
No way I was calling
back.
Then Jonah called a sec-
Jonah and Lisa, minutes after he proposed.
ond time. As Lisa put it,
"I'm not a big phone per-
son, but we talked for over
posal rivals Moliere. "I knew Lisa
an hour. Jonah felt like an immedi-
would want her family present
ate friend. Just from that one con-
when I asked her to marry me, but
versation I felt like I had known
by then (spring of 1998) I was in
him forever.
law school in Miami. Then Lisa
By their second phone call, the
came clown for a visit.
connections escalated. We clicked
Jonah plotted to bring Lisa's par-
on so many points, it's startling,"
ents, sister and brother-in-law to
Jonah says. "We had gone to
Miami to be present when he
(Camp) Tamakwa and though Lisa
popped the question. Then the
only spent one summer there, she
overhang fell in at Yankee Stadium,
knew all of my camp friends. Her
the Yankees/Tigers game got shifted
mom was a school principal (West
to Detroit, and Lisa's father, who
Hills Middle School in Bloomfield
manages the Tigers' parking lots,
Hills] and knew my friends since
had to stay behind. More finagling
she had had them in school. Lisa's a
to transfer Mr. Stone's ticket to a
sports nut like I am.
favorite aunt.
"We both thought: 'This is too
Cut to Miami: The four Stone
good to be true. There has to be a
relatives are waiting in an exclusive
catch.' But there was none."
restaurant
Jonah's orchestration of his pro-
with Brides magazines (supplied
"
by Jonah, who thinks of every-
thing!) shielding their faces. Miss
Stone, knowing something is up
when she sees the magazines, turns
to Jonah, who proposes. Lisa turns
back and finds her family, maga-
zines in hand, before her. "It rook
me a few moments to realize what
was going on," she remembers.
"Then I shrieked."
"From our first date I kept say-
ing to Jonah, 'This is different.' I
was so comfortable. It's amazing
how many people from Detroit,
Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto
(Jonah's home town) were involved
in getting us together.
"It's a North American Love
Story." The catch? She's his and he's
hers. Plain and simple for a May
30 wedding date. Li