Yoelit Lipinsky was done with dating when Ariel Greene’s profile came across her computer screen in December 2019.
At the time, Mr. Greene was living in Seattle and Dr. Lipinsky in Toronto, where she was remotely finishing her dissertation for a Ph.D. in medical ethics from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
“I was finished dating at the time,” said Dr. Lipinsky, 33, who earned her Ph.D in May 2020. “I said I will travel to wherever my postdoctoral life takes me, and then I’ll worry about men from there.”
But Mr. Greene, she said, “literally fell into my lap” when the pair were matched on a Facebook dating group called “Chill Yentas: Jewish Dating for Serious Professionals.”
“They sent me his profile and I’m like, he’s in Seattle,” said Dr. Lipinsky, who also has a master’s degree in public administration from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and a master’s degree from the University of Toronto. “But I said he’s worth a follow-up conversation.”
The couple talked consistently over the phone for a few weeks before Mr. Greene, 32, who has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Washington, knew he had to meet Dr. Lipinsky in person. “I was like, ‘All right, I gotta go meet this girl,’” he said. “So I booked a ticket for the end of February 2020.”
They took turns flying to visit one another after the coronavirus pandemic set in. When Dr. Lipinsky flew to Seattle in October 2020 to take care of Mr. Greene after a surgery, he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. “I had a feeling before that it was right,” he said. “But it was really when she put her life on hold to come take care of me that I was like ‘I’ve got to marry this woman.’”
In December 2020, the couple went ring shopping in Toronto. Mr. Greene ordered a ring soon after, with plans to become engaged in May 2021 on trip to an Airbnb rental on the Hood Canal in Washington State.
On the day Mr. Greene had planned to propose, however, the ring was stuck in customs. “I had the whole proposal planned out,” he said. “The only thing was the ring was still missing.”
Luckily, Mr. Greene has a friend in Seattle who is a jeweler, from whom he asked to borrow a ring. While the couple was having dinner, he brought out a piece of cheesecake with the ring box on it. When Dr. Lipinsky started to get excited, the first thing he said was “I need to preface this with an apology.”
Then, Dr. Lipinsky said, “he started bawling his eyes out.”
Mr. Greene added, “Full waterworks. Like snotty 3-year-old crying.”
Dr. Lipinsky ended up getting down on her knee to comfort him. “Eventually I’m like, ‘Would you still like to be engaged please?’” she said.
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When the actual ring finally arrived the following Monday, they went to a park and had a second proposal.
“There were two proposals, and she said yes both times,” Mr. Greene said.
The second, Dr. Lipinsky added with a laugh, had “no tears.”
The two were married Oct. 17 at Shaarei Shomayim Congregation in Toronto, surrounded by 120 fully vaccinated guests, including the bride’s brother, Yehezkel Lipinsky, who sang her down the aisle. (Mr. Lipinsky is a product designer for New York Times Cooking.) The couple brought in Rabbi Shua Hoexter from Pittsburgh to officiate at the ceremony; Rabbi Elliot Diamond, who was also present, signed the civil license in Toronto.
Days later, they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Dr. Lipinsky holds two postdoctoral fellowships in bioethics, one at the University of British Columbia and the other at Providence Health Care and Provincial Health Services Authority. Mr. Greene, who in Seattle worked for Electroimpact, an aerospace engineering manufacturer, is currently looking for new employment opportunities.
Of the moment they first saw one another at their wedding, Dr. Lipinsky said, “We were supposedly surrounded by people, but there was no one else.” This sensation, she added, is common when she’s with Mr. Greene. “He always makes me feel that way, like the only woman in the room.”
