Mazal tov Noah and Catherine!
B”H, this past Saturday night my brother-in-law got married to my new sister-in-law Catherine! We are so thrilled for them, and in case you missed it, I’m reposting the incredible story I posted last Purim about how they met:
2 decades ago, my divorced mother-in-law, Annette, fell deeply in love and got engaged to a man who broke her heart.
Enno and Annette met at the airport in Toronto on their way to Germany. Annette had noticed Enno’s eleven-year-old son playing in a most imaginative way with two little six-year-old girls, keeping them entertained while waiting for departure.
And through him Annette met the boy’s father, a divorced man from Annette’s native Germany.
Annette and Enno dated and then they started planning their wedding. Enno was going to immigrate to Canada. Annette looked forward to her second marriage with great expectation and developed a close relationship with Enno’s five children as well. But several months before the wedding Enno changed his mind, and he ended up marrying somebody else.
My mother pointed out that Enno’s name was prophetic. “N-O! Nope, Annette, keep your distance from this one.”
It took years for Annette to fully recover from the disappointment of Enno’s betrayal. He had planned to come with two of his children, the eleven-year-old Frederik and a 17-year-old daughter, Catherine.
The children were devastated by their father’s changed plans; Annette was very fond of the children and decided, together with their mother, that they should come to Canada for a year, anyway. She became their official foster mother.
“It was the best year of my life,” the boy Frederik told her many times after their return to Germany. Later, she visited with the children whenever possible.
During college, my husband’s brother, Noah, started dating Enno’s daughter, Catherine. But he was in Canada and she was in Germany, so after a few months things fizzled out.
A few years later, Catherine got married and had a baby girl. And Noah met a woman whom he dated for seven years.
Around that same time, Annette met a true mensch of a human being named Peter who became her beloved second husband and a devoted “saba” to my children. Sadly, after ten years together, Saba Peter passed away in 2010.
After Peter passed away, Noah and his girlfriend broke up. And Catherine and her husband decided to divorce.
This past fall, Catherine and her mother came on a vacation to Canada and while they were visiting my mother-in-law,
Noah spent some time with Catherine. They realized that they still loved one another.
B”H, Noah and Catherine are planning to get married this coming December.
Noah and Catherine at their wedding in Kingston, Ontario this past Saturday night.
This is, of course, a wedding that would not be taking place if not for a heartbreaking broken engagement 20 years ago.
I love this story so much because it’s such an important reminder for me.
When difficult things happen, I pray for Hashem’s mercy, but I tend to have zero patience. I wait for a few weeks, for a few months, maybe a year…And then I decide that Hashem has forgotten about me and my problems.
And I guess that’s what emuna is about. Understanding that it could take 20 years, like in our Weisberg family miracle, or even far longer than that, until we can finally see Hashem’s tremendous mercy hidden even within our moments of deepest suffering.
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A sweet story that Catherine and Noah shared at the wedding….
When Catherine and Noah started dating again after so many years, out of the blue one of Catherine’s friends (with whom she hadn’t spoken in about ten years) sent her an email containing a really cute photo of Noah and Catherine playing football together 17 years ago, and along with it she sent this song (which they played at the wedding) about the ups and downs of life, and how we need the downs to have the ups, and that’s what enables life to come full-circle and be so wonderful…The perfect song for Noah and Catherine (and not only because the singer looks quite a bit like Noah– my kids actually were certain this was their Dod Noah singing in the video and asked me if this was filmed at the wedding).
Dear Noah and Catherine– I bless you from the bottom of my heart with many years of happiness and health and love and abundant wonderful and unexpected blessings, until 120.
“Life Is Wonderful”
It takes a crane to build a crane
It takes two floors to make a story
It takes an egg to make a hen
It takes a hen to make an egg
There is no end to what I’m saying
It takes a thought to make a word
And it takes some words to make an action
It takes some work to make it work
It takes some good to make it hurt
It takes some bad for satisfaction
La la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Al la la la la
It takes a night to make it dawn
And it takes a day to make you yawn brother
And it takes some old to make you young
It takes some cold to know the sun
It takes the one to have the other
And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
It takes some fears to make you trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the rust to have it polished
Ha la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is so full of
Ah la la la la la la life is so rough
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ah la la la la la la life is our love
Ah la la la la la
It takes some silence to make sound
It takes a loss before you found it
And it takes a road to go nowhere
It takes a toll to make you care
It takes a hole to make a mountain
Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle
Ha la la la la la life is wonderful
Ha la la la la la life is meaningful
Ha la la la la la life is wonderful
Ha la la la la la life it is…so… wonderful
It is so meaningful
It is so wonderful
It is meaningful
It is wonderful
It is meaningful
It goes full circle
Wonderful
Meaningful
Full circle
Wonderful
mazel tov!
Oh, thank you. I needed that reminder. Experiencing some pain and giref ATM, so thank you for the reminder that it makes simcha more simcha’dik. It’s impossible to have a life with only ups, I guess.
Mazal Tov, Mr. Weisberg!!
Chana– I never had the chance to email you about this, but I reconnected with my former English teacher from Dawson on LinkedIn, and he told me you are his sister-in-law!! Beautiful Hashgacha pratit.
Mazal Tov Mazal Tov to a real mensch, who puts up with pesky CEGEP students!
so sweet, thanks for sharing!