Mazel Toy!

R e un i ted

A 30-year on-again, off-again courtship is forever on-again.

SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer

I

n an intimate Oct. 16 wedding
ceremony, Karen Cohen and
Richard Tessler marked both
the start of a new life together
and the permanent renewal of a past
friendship.
Best pals in high school, Karen says
they dated briefly in college and then
"lost touch for a while." Her mother
Eleanor Dorfman laughs, "Not just a
while — for almost 30 years!!"
For a long time, Karen and Richard's
lives took similar turns in different
places. Each married and became the
parent of two children. Karen remained
in Michigan, while Richard moved to
LaJolla, Calif, in 1978.
Three years ago, Karen bumped into
a friend who mentioned that Richard's
name was on a missing person's list for
their upcoming 30-year Oak Park
High School reunion. Karen knew
someone who had Richard's tele-
phone number. Then she called
him to make sure he didn't
mind her sharing it with
the reunion committee.
When he
answered the
phone,
Richard

says, he heard a voice saying, "This is a
really good friend from your past.
"In an instant I said, 'It's Karen."'
They talked for a while, old pals rem-
iniscing about a past friendship. But she
made no plans to attend the reunion,
scheduled for the same evening as her
cousin's bar mitzvah party.
As the night got closer, Karen and
her twin sister Gail decided they
would be sorry if they missed the
reunion. They agreed to leave the bar
mitzvah early.
At the reunion, Richard and Karen
resumed what she called an immediate
friendship: "We were like brother and
sister again."
During the next year, both Karen
and Richard each experienced
divorce.

"

The two friends began a phone relation-
ship that eventually became monthly
flights between Michigan and
California.
Ever the romantics, they were
engaged on Valentine's Day and married
on Sweetest Day. Karen often receives
messages on her pager that read
"45683968," the numbers on the tele-
phone that spell: I-L-0-V-E-Y-0-U.
Looking for a fun place, away from
either of their hometowns, to bind their

two families, they agreed to get married
in Las Vegas. Continuing the romantic
theme, she booked Las Vegas' Paris
Hotel and picked a Rabbi Rosenstein
from the telephone book. Karen, who
owns a candy business, then began mak-
ing Eiffel Tower-shaped chocolates for
the guests.
Surrounded by a few close friends
and family members, Richard and
Karen were married under a chuppa
held by their children, Samantha
and Bradley Cohen and Brandon
and Adam Tessler.
After a weekend of festivities, the
bride and groom traveled to a Santa Fe
and San Francisco honeymoon.
Karen's mother remembers Richard
as her daughter's "very good friend in
high school." But, she added, "who
would have thought in a million years
they would end up together?"
There is no such question in the
mind of the groom. Richard says of his
new bride: She makes me happy every
minute of every day."

❑

Karen and Richard Tessler at their
wedding last weekend.

'2„,:smag

