SOMETIMES IT JUST TAKES TIME

Barbara and Stanely Silverstone

Barbara and Stanley Silverstone couldn’t help but meet at International Torah Corps, a camp in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There were only 30 kids in the whole camp.

Of course, both 15, they were too young for romance in 1977. They were there to explore their Jewish roots — and to make friends. And that’s just what they did at the Hebrew and Judaic study camp — where they had classes in Hebrew, Talmud and Torah as well as calligraphy and Israeli dancing And though they both returned the following year, they still weren’t a couple until, 10 years later, when a camp friend organized reunion.

Barbara was excited to see Washington, D.C., where the reunion would be held — and to see old friends, some of whom she’d stayed in touch with since their camp days. She traveled to D.C. from New York; Stanley came in from Toronto.

Barabara Silverstone, middle row, six from left, and Stanely, back row, six from left, in 1977.

When they remet… “I wouldn’t exactly say sparks flew,” Barbara says. “But as we spent time together that weekend, we just seemed so…compatible. It felt right to be with him.”
And so, as old friendships were rekindled, a little ember began to glow between the re-acquainted couple. That holiday season, Stanley returned to the states to visit his sister and when he called Barbara around New Years Eve, she suspected he came up to visit her “I think the sister visit was just an excuse,” she says now. Still, she was glad he called — and she wanted to see him again. So, that February, she visited him in Toronto. “I know it was February,” she remembers. “Because I brought a box of Entenmann’s Valentine’s Day cupcakes!”

This was during the time of the $99 flight and they made several trips back and forth that year. “As we’ve often joked with our kids, we’d never have gotten married if flights cost what they do today!” Barbara laughs.

When Stanley proposed during one of Barbara’s visits, she wasn’t sure what to say. “We were at the Shaw Theater Festival in Ontario,” she says. “We were having dinner and I wondered if it was too soon —after all, we’d just re-met each other a few months earlier.”
She took a week to think things over. And then…

“When you can’t imagine your life without the other person, you knowit’s right,” she says. Six months later, in 1989, Stanley moved to New York and they began to plan their wedding.

And in July, 1990, wearing a beautiful veil crafted by Stanley’s Great Aunt Elsie — a well-known milliner who’d made hats for the Queen of England’s ladies in waiting—Barbara married Stanley. Today, “I’m so glad I married him,” she says. The couple, who live in Nanuet, have two sons, 11 and 14, are both headed to one of the New Jersey Y camps, a Jewish sleep-away camp, of course. For now, like their parents, the boys are only interested in… camp.

A LIFETIME OF LOVE

Bob and Judy Umlas

Judy Wagreich and Bob Umlas met at Camp Pinecone in French Woods, Hancock, New York in the Poconos. Bob was the waterfront counselor; Judy, a CIT.

Judy liked it when Bob came by the theater where she spent a lot of time just to flirt with her. A talented guitarist, everyone liked Bob.

Still, “I wouldn’t say I fell madly in love with him,” Judy remembers. “But I was excited I’d attracted a college boy!”

When he asked her out, after the summer, Judy, only 17, wasn’t ready for anything serious. Bob, 21, clearly was. He asked her to the World’s Fair, arriving an hour and a half early. Judy was nowhere near ready. So he sat in the back yard, charming her parents who fell madly in love with him while their daughter primped for a first date. “I don’t remember anything we did,” Judy laughs. “But I can tell you exactly what I was wearing.” (A black and white skirt and top, for those curious.)

and in 1967.

By their second date, Bob was ready to marry her—and told her so.

“I couldn’t even think about that!” Judy laughs. He pursued her for four more years. But finally, ready to give up, he said. “Maybe we better take the summer off.
“No, wait!” Judy said. “I’ll do anything not to break up. Even marry you!
“It was a wonderful decision!” Judy says of their 42-year marriage in which they fought about only one thing—how old they were when they met! After raising two beautiful children, something happened to prove it.

Judy was having a bad day at work when Bob asked, “Anything I can do to make it better?”
“Write me a love letter.”

“I’m an Excel developer,” Bob said. “We don’t write love letters.” But ten minutes later, an email arrived: A three-page love letter—written as an itemized list of all the things he appreciated about her.

With tears in her eyes, Judy wondered: Why don’t people tell each other these things all the time? That’s when the idea for her book, The Power of Acknowledgment (available at www.IIL.com/poa) was born. Ever since, Bob has written Judy two love emails a week. She cherishes each one — and she let’s Bob know, “Marrying you was the best decision I ever made!”

Together, they bought a home in Pearl River and in December of 1990, they were married—with Rabbi Les Scharnberg, an old friend from camp, officiating and a room full of camp friends to celebrate with.

Today the dream has come full circle—their son Skyler, 14, is a Surprise Lake camper and this summer, Michael, 17, will join the staff.

Marla Cohen and Lauren Mikalov contributed to this article.