12 | APRIL 27 • 2023 

OUR COMMUNITY

F

irst impressions aren’t always right. 
Just ask Lindsey Waldman. She 
famously told her husband, 
Joe, within minutes of meeting 
him that he was “the most 
annoying person she’d ever 
met in her life!” 
Lindsey Weberman 
grew up in Farmington 
Hills; Joe Waldman 
grew up near Chicago. 
While he went to 
Purdue to pursue 
a degree in electric 
and chemical engi-
neering, she studied 
medical technology at 
Michigan State. Both 
of them had previously 
signed up for a Birthright 
trip but had canceled for 
different reasons. 
In December 2007, Purdue 
and Michigan State organized 
a joint Birthright trip, and both 
Lindsey and Joe signed up. 
The students were seated on the plane 
alphabetically … and guess who wound 
up sitting next to each other!?
It wasn’t exactly love at first sight: 
Lindsey had prepared for the long flight 
with a nice book. Joe had also planned 
for the long flight — with a stack of 
board games he’d planned on playing 
with whichever lucky person he was 
sitting next to. And as any bookworm 
knows, it’s not fun being badgered to play 
a game when all you want to do is read.

That’s when Lindsey told Joe her 
unflattering assessment of him!
A few minutes later, she felt bad. “I’m 
not normally so rude,” she said and put 
down her book and agreed to let him 
show her how to play a round of back-
gammon. 
That was all it took. They were togeth-
er the entire 10 days of the Birthright trip 
and “the rest is history.”

After they married in September 2011, 
they settled in Chicago. When Joe 
was looking for a new job in 2015, 
Lindsey told him she’d help him 
find one.
“You know nothing 
about engineering. How 
will you find me a 
job?” Joe laughed, but 
Lindsey had the last 
laugh. 
She looked closer 
to Michigan, found 
the perfect job for 
her husband and 
he’s been commuting 
ever since from their 
West Bloomfield home 
to his job at Toledo 
Refining Company, 
where he’s the department 
lead of advanced process 
controls. Lindsey is a pedi-
atric nurse at Medical Center 
Pediatrics (formerly at Henry 
Ford.)
Today, Lindsey and Joe and their kids, 
Brendan, 8, Natalie, 5, and Jude, 1, are 
proud members of Adat Shalom. 
“Joe still loves games, and I still think 
he’s annoying sometimes,” Lindsey said. 
“But now whenever I tell Joe, ‘You’re 
so annoying,’ he says, ‘Yes, but you love 
that!’ I guess I do!” 

This column will appear biweekly. If you’d like to 

share your “meet-cute” story, please email 

burstynwithjoy@hotmail.com.

HOW WE MET

‘The Most 

Person 
I’ve Ever Met’

ROCHEL BURSTYN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Joe and Lindsey on their 
wedding day

Joe and Lindsey when they 
first met

The happy family now, 

