Beshert: A Valentine’s Day love story | Opinion

I am always curious how couples meet and fall in love. Sometimes the answer is that a friend introduced them, or they tell me how they met on an internet dating site.

But sometimes meeting that special someone is more mysterious than that. Regardless of where or how, whenever a single becomes a duo, I believe in something called Beshert.

Beshert is a Yiddish word. It often refers to one’s destiny to meet the “right’’ person or one’s soulmate.

So as we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day this month, I share with you, dear readers, a romantic tale about a young couple, who both rejected their parents’ suggestion to meet each other, but fell in love all on their own.

My friend Bobbie was a high school cheerleader in Long Beach, New York. Her schoolmate, Larry Kimmelman, was a football player. When the two graduated in the mid-1950s, they went their separate ways and lost contact with each other.

Then in 1995, Bobbie Solomon was featured in a Newsday food column for her cooking acumen.

The high school football player’s mom, who remembered Bobbie as a teenager, sent the article to her son, who was then married and living in Boston. When Larry read the article, he quickly phoned Bobbie, who was living with her husband, Jack Solomon, in Lido Beach, New York.

The two chatted about the “good old days’’ but also talked about their lives for the past 40 years.

Bobbie and Jack told about their single son, Bill, who worked and lived in Manhattan.

Larry and his wife, Phyllis, had a single daughter, Hillary, who also worked and resided in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

When they realized that both their children lived in the same apartment building, they tried to plot a way to get them to meet each other.

Their attempt flopped as both children refused to even call each other.

“There is no one in this building I would want to date,’’ said Bill.

Hillary had the same reaction.

Time passed. The two sets of parents were disappointed.

“They would make such a nice couple,’’ said Bobbie.

Months later, by chance (or is it destiny?) while Bill was rollerblading in his neighborhood, he met a couple who were going into the building to visit Hillary. When Bill realized it was the gal his parents wanted him to meet, he quietly asked the guy what Hillary looked like. He answered: “She is beautiful.’’

That clinched the deal for Bill who then called Hillary and the two went out on their first date. (He didn’t have to travel too far as he lived on the fourth floor and she was on the 11th floor.) Time passed and the two fell in love and married a year later.

Update: Bill and Hillary recently celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary. They have two sons, 18 and 16. These days, both sets of grandparents — the Solomons and the Kimmelmans — have remained friends and share the joy of their grandchildren.