The Truest Love

On February 21st, I officiated Lora and Ed's wedding ceremony at Maggiano's in Plano, Texas. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests:

What Lora and Ed teach us is something both deeply countercultural and deeply comforting: that love does not have an expiration date, and it does not require urgency, drama, or reinvention to be real. Sometimes the truest love arrives quietly, when life has already been lived, lessons already learned, and priorities finally clarified.
 
Lora describes her life honestly, calling herself “a work-a-holic who was fortunate enough to have a beautiful child late in life.” That sentence alone tells us something important. Life does not unfold on a single schedule, and meaning does not arrive all at once. It comes in chapters. And when it comes late, it is no less sacred.
 
Ed, too, has lived a full life. He has built homes, raised sons, served a community, and quite literally helped create sacred space. He tells us that he built the ark that still holds the Torah at Adat Chaverim, and that both of his sons became Bar Mitzvah in front of it. That detail matters. It tells us that Ed is someone who builds things meant to last, not just structures, but foundations.
 
And then, in January of 2025, something remarkably simple happened.
 
They met at a restaurant after work.
 
No spectacle. No grand setup. Just two people sitting down at four o’clock in the afternoon.
 
Lora writes, “From the moment we sat down, the conversation just flowed, easy, comfortable. I remember thinking, ‘This feels different.’” She says being with Ed has always felt that way: “natural, peaceful, no pressure.” That’s not the language of infatuation. That’s the language of recognition.
 
Ed describes walking across an empty restaurant toward her and having what he calls “the strangest thoughts and emotions.” He says, “It was not love. It was not based on looks. I really do not know what it was based on, but I knew instantly that this was going to be different.” There is something deeply honest in that. Love does not always announce itself with fireworks. Sometimes it arrives as certainty without explanation.
 
By the third date, Ed told her he didn’t want to see anyone else. Lora’s response, characteristically understated, was simply, “OK.” And somehow, in that quiet exchange, a whole future clicked into place.
 
What we learn from them is that marriage, at this stage of life, is not about beginning from scratch. It is about choosing deliberately. Lora says it beautifully: “Getting married isn’t about starting over; it’s about choosing each other deliberately, with open eyes, open hearts, and deep gratitude.” That is wisdom earned, not imagined.
 
They are not here because they need each other to complete them. They are here because they know what matters now. They know the cost of time. Ed says it plainly: “I cannot go back in time to marry her. This is the first opportunity to marry her, and I am not going to delay.” That is not impatience. That is clarity.
 
And there is something else we learn from them, something especially sacred. This marriage does not only create a happy couple. It creates a family. Ed speaks tenderly about meeting Charlotte, calling her a “bonus child,” and reminding us that “a bonus is always good.” Lora and Ed show us that love expands. It makes room. It welcomes what life brings with gratitude rather than fear.
 
So what do we take from all of this?
 
We learn that love can be effortless without being shallow. That certainty does not require drama. That timing is not about age, but readiness. And that sometimes the most meaningful words in a love story are not poetic declarations, but simple ones: this feels different, I only want to date you, I’m ok with that.
 
Lora and Ed remind us that love is not about reclaiming youth, but about honoring the present. About walking forward together, side by side, celebrating the wins, holding hands through the hard times, and choosing each other every day, not out of need, but out of joy.
 
That is a lesson worth carrying with us.