With a little help from their friends

In 1981 Rachel Bendelak was invited to her friend’s birthday dinner at Otello’s Restaurant in Finchley. Her friend was going out with Richard Birch, who was seated opposite Rachel. On either side of Rachel were two other single men, one of whom was Richard’s best friend and all three engaged Rachel in conversation. “It was a lovely evening,” says Rachel, “but I didn’t think much more about it.”

Three months later, Richard called Rachel up and asked her out. Studying for exams had meant he couldn’t act immediately, despite being smitten by what he recalls as “the gorgeous brunette with the fabulous legs”.

“I couldn’t remember which guy he was,” laughs Rachel.

Richard recalls a degree of subterfuge needed to get Rachel’s number. “I asked my then girlfriend for it, by telling her that I was interested in seeing Rachel’s father’s stamp collection. I was still going out with her when I phoned Rachel up,” he admits. Richard and Rachel became engaged five months later.

And what were Rachel’s friend’s thoughts on the events? “She was very sad to lose Richard as they’d been dating for two years, but she was very nice and wished him well,” says Rachel. It was obviously meant to be, as Rachel and Richard have been happily married for 33 years and live in Southgate with their two daughters.

Having just come out of a marriage, Sharon Leanse was not on the lookout for love. While in Oakwood, she passed an estate agency window and, looking for a flat, saw details of a property which interested her.
“I went in and a rather tall, dashing man came towards me,” says Sharon. This was Martin Morris. “He offered to take me to see the flat. We ended up chatting away in the car like old friends for ages. Eventually he said, ‘Shall we actually look at the flat?’

“Once the offer had been accepted, I did go into his office two or three times more than was necessary, and he offered to help decorate the flat, but I thought maybe he was just being a smooth-talking estate agent!

“Eventually, he texted me to ask me out for a drink. I hadn’t been out on a date for 26 years. I thought ‘What am I doing, I’m stupid’ but by that time, we had been talking to each other for months, so it was a lovely evening.”

Martin was equally smitten. “I thought she was drop-dead gorgeous. It was love at first sight. But it was six months after we had first met before I actually asked her out. ”

In June 2015, three years after their first date, they married at West Lodge Park Hotel, in Hertfordshire.

Ali Roth met Eli Kosiner at university in Birmingham, but their journey to the chupah was certainly not smooth. Mutual friends set them up on a date, but Eli did not regard Ali as a long-term prospect, though she felt otherwise. Come the last day of university, she went to say goodbye to Eli. “It was horrendous. We were both in tears. Driving home to Manchester I was crying so hard I couldn’t see. I called my parents and they said I shouldn’t be driving, so I drove back to see Eli for a few hours.”

“I was very upset, and I didn’t know why,” said Eli. When Ali moved to London, wanting to be near Eli, he helped her settle in her new home, finding her a job with his uncle.

They continued to see each other but, as Ali says, “He felt the grass was greener elsewhere.” This continual reluctance to commit saw the relationship founder briefly on several occasions, until he finally realised that the love of his life was right in front of him.

In August 2003 he proposed to Ali in a helicopter over New York. Undoing his seatbelt and getting down on one knee, he didn’t realise the pilot had chosen that moment to do a nosedive, so Eli thought the happiest time in his life was going to be followed swiftly by his last. Luckily the helicopter landed safely, and its passengers married in August 2004. They live in Edgware with their two daughters.