38 | FEBRUARY 16 • 2023 

A

ccording to Jewish 
lore, there’s no 
such thing as 
coincidence. We are precisely 
where we’re meant to be at 
any given time. So when a 
couple comes about because 
of a “chance meeting,” we 
can assume that is the reason 
they were there. 
Rebecca Roberts and Dean 
Lugashi of Southfield met in 
the summer of 2012 while 
doing something neither 
of them had ever done 
before or since: They both 
happened to be working as 
inclusion counselors at the 
JCC camp. They were both 
counselors for the same 
group, Teen Trekkers.
“I’d never been to camp 
my entire life and I thought 
it would be fun to be a 
counselor,” Rebecca said. “I 
was right; it was a blast!”
Rebecca had grown up in 
Hazel Park, raised by her 
parents, who had been high 
school sweethearts. 
Dean, meanwhile, had 
moved around quite a bit 
during childhood. Originally 
from Los Angeles, he’d 
moved to Israel with his 
family when he was 6, then 
to New Jersey when he was 
14. At age 24, one month 
before camp started, he 
relocated again, this time to 
Michigan. 
Dean liked Rebecca right 
away, but Rebecca was 
oblivious. 
“I remember we went 
canoeing together with two 
special needs teenage boys 
who were panicking that 

they might fall in the water,” 
Rebecca said. “At the same 
time, Dean was trying to flirt 
with me, but it kept flying 
over my head!”
Rebecca asked him, “So, 
what are you doing at the 

end of the summer?” 
Dean’s answer was an 
extremely clear, “Hanging 
out with you.” 
Finally, she got it!
These days, when telling 
their “how we met” story, 

Dean will inevitably end with 
“… And I’m still hanging out 
with her!”
As they got to know 
each other, the young 
couple particularly 
enjoyed discovering a 
name connection: Dean’s 
grandmother’s name was 
Rebecca and his grandfather 
was Robert — and the whole 
family was delighted that 
he was dating a Rebecca 
Roberts!
Dean’s parents were so 
enamored with the area 
when they came for a visit, 
they moved to Southfield 
soon afterwards. Rebecca 
converted to Judaism in 
2018, just a few weeks before 
their July wedding, which 
took place in Dean’s parents’ 
backyard.
Currently, Dean is a 
plan reviewer and building 
inspector for Bloomfield 
Township, and Rebecca 
works actively as a caregiver 
for adults with disabilities 
(although she’s also a 
licensed Realtor and builder.) 
The couple are parents to 
daughter Arielle, 2, who just 
started attending Shaarey 
Zedek Hebrew school.
“And, of course, we plan 
to send her to the JCC camp 
one day!” Rebecca said. 
“We’ll tell her this is where 
her dad and I first met … 
and who knows who she’ll 
meet there!” 

This column will appear biweekly. If 

you’d like to share your ‘meet-cute’ 

story, please email burstynwithjoy@

hotmail.com.

HOW WE MET
OUR COMMUNITY

‘All in the 
Name’

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rebecca Roberts 
and Dean Lugashi 
freshly married

Rebecca and 
Dean and 
daughter Arielle