Against All Odds: Our Love Story.
At the beginning… Most people who knew about our relationship didn’t believe it would last.
Vered’s parents were convinced that the only reason I hooked up with their daughter was to “steal” her apartment.
Today I can chuckle about that, considering I was basically living in my office at the Technion Institute in Haifa when we met.
I was a 25-year-old entrepreneur without job security or a steady salary, and eight years younger than Vered.
We met when I was a student in one of her workshops.
Back then, it wasn’t funny.
For different reasons, her friends – and some of my friends too – didn’t think we’d last long.
We were too different, with different beliefs and views on life.
We were both workaholics, meeting mainly at nights.
We also skipped the “normal” falling in love phase and instead jumped from one phone call into living together, knowing nothing about each other but with a strong decision to make a relationship that would last forever.
This didn’t inspire confidence in the people around us.
But we were sure from the first moment, from the first phone call.
I knew it was forever – not because of her, me, falling in love, compatibility, or anything else – but because we both wanted it and were willing to commit to the relationship forever.
We met in Vered’s workshop “Communication for Success.”
I attended with my business partner, hoping to improve our communication.
Vered and I connected during the workshop, and I left her a note at the end, expressing that I felt something beyond a professional connection.
A few days later, she called me at my office with a flimsy excuse, and we talked for hours.
We discussed everything – she mentioned wanting kids soon (something you probably shouldn’t tell a 25-year-old man on the first call), and I confessed I loved kids too.
I then told her I’d never marry her, which she had to “swallow”.
It wasn’t your normal first phone call.
It led to an intense, unconventional start.
We met mainly at nights and on weekends, squeezing as much juice from the relationship as we could in the short time we had together.
We did things like shopping in the middle of the night at a 24-hour supermarket and replacing her beloved bed because it squeaked too much when we had sex.
I remember watching “Four Weddings and a Funeral” in a cinema in Tel Aviv, then walking the streets in the pouring rain, just like at the end of the movie, because we “couldn’t get any wetter.”
Vered handled the skepticism with arguments; I didn’t care about other people’s opinions.
I knew I’d won the lottery with this relationship, and I intended to keep it forever.
Decades later, she’s still the one.
In 1997, after our daughter was born, we heard Shania Twain’s “You’re Still the One” and knew it was our song.
The lyrics reflected our journey and commitment perfectly:
“Looks like we made it, look how far we’ve come, my baby
They said, ‘I bet they’ll never make it’
But just look at us holding on
We’re still together, still going strong…”
So here we are, beating the odds together.
Look how far we’ve come, my baby.