Living Weil

The Scene

Kenny Litvin and
_Melissa Wolf

By

UNWITTINGLY PLAYI

LISA BARSON
Special to the Jewish News

S

ome believe in love
at first sight and
others rely on their
intuition. For
Melissa Wolf, it was a lucky
number that let her know
she had found her soulmate.
Wolf, 32, of Berkley, was
no stranger to the blind dat-
ing scene. When her moth-
er's good friend asked if she
could give Wolf's number to
a potential date, Wolf
agreed. After a few rounds
of phone tag, Wolf finally
caught up with her date,
Kenny Lirvin.
In the course of their
telephone conversation,
Litvin, 30, explained that
he lived in Southfield's
Leslie Towers apartments.
Wolf said her grandmother
had lived in the same
building, and asked Litvin
which floor he lived on.
"What a coincidence,"

6/1 5

2001

90

ADS TO THE CHUPPAH.

thought Wolf — her
grandmother had also lived
on the third floor.
Then she asked which
apartment number, and to
her surprise Litvin was liv-
ing in No. 311, the same
unit that her grandmother
had lived in years earlier.
"When I first found this
out," says Litvin, "I knew
there had to be something
special about Melissa."
But Wolf needed more
time to come to the same
realization. In fact, it was-
n't until after two more
coincidences that Wolf
realized Litvin was Mr.
Right.
The couple went to a
movie together. As they
were entering the theater,
Litvin looked closely at his
movie pass. The number on
it was 311. When he point-
ed this out to a very sur-
prised Wolf, she was still
reluctant to see any symbol-
ism.

Wolf was also reluctant
to visit Lirvin in apartment
311. She was concerned
that there would be too
many reminders of her late
grandmother in the build-
ing.
Arriving for her first visit,
she tried to lighten the
mood by making a joke
about a mosquito bite she
had. Litvin replied that it
was "as big as Mount St.
Helens." What Litvin did
not know was that Wolf's
grandmother's name was
Helen.
Unnerved, Wolf entered
the apartment expecting to
find it looking as it had
when her grandmother
occupied it. "I even expect-
ed to find a bowl of
Hershey's Kisses on the
kitchen table, just as they
had always been," Wolf
laughs. She was relieved to
find that the apartment was
nothing like she had
remembered. In fact, she

says, "it was a total bachelor
pad."
Litvin knew Wolf was the
right woman for him on
their first date, and it took
Wolf just three additional
dates to come to the same
conclusion.
After 11 months of dat-
ing, Lirvin proposed on a
beach in Cancun, Mexico.
The couple will be mar-
ried at Bay Pointe Country
Club in West Bloomfield,
but unfortunately, not on
their desired date — March
11 (3-11). "It was too hard
to plan everything in time
to hold it on that date,"
explains Wolf.
While Wolf is sad that her
grandmother won't be with
her on her wedding day in
July, she is certain that she
will be there in spirit. "I was
my grandmother's only
remaining single grandchild,
so I know she was watching
me. She helped handpick a
gem for me."

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