Molly Fogel and John Fisher III were married March 2 at the Smith, a restaurant in New York. Daniel Pedroza, a friend of the couple who became a Universal Life minister for the event, officiated.
The bride, 38, is the director of education and social services for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America in New York. She graduated from American University and received a master’s degree in social work from N.Y.U.
She is a daughter of Judith Fogel and Herbert Fogel of Delray Beach, Fla. The bride’s parents are retired as the owners of Brown Tailors and Cleaners in East Greenwich, R.I.
The groom, also 38, is the director for research at CBS Sports in New York. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University.
He is a son of John Fisher Jr. of Philadelphia and the late Margaret Fisher. The groom’s father is a retired Philadelphia firefighter who was last assigned to Squirt 9, Ladder Company 21 there.
Ms. Fogel and Mr. Fisher met in March 2017 at a bar at the West Palm Beach Airport in Florida. Ms. Fogel was trying to head back to New York from Fort Lauderdale, but needed to switch airports when her flight was canceled because of bad weather. Mr. Fisher had a ticket to Hartford to be used the day before, but needed to get home earlier to help care for his mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease.
They began a conversation during which Ms. Fogel revealed that she and had just given a six-hour presentation on Alzheimer’s.
“His ears perked up,” Ms. Fogel said. “He asked for my card because he had some questions regarding his mom as it related to what she was going through.”
A week later, while both were away on business, she in Denver and he in San Francisco, Mr. Fisher called and they spoke for about an hour about his mother’s condition.
In early April, Ms. Fogel sent Mr. Fisher “names of places he should go and questions he should ask regarding information on Alzheimer’s related to his mom,” she said.
She also extended an invitation to Mr. Fisher and his father to one of her company’s conferences, which was to take place in Philadelphia the following month.
Mr. Fisher, then living in Newington, Conn., went (his father could not attend). Afterward he and Ms. Fogel chatted over a few drinks.
“It was the best date, nondate I ever had,” Ms. Fogel said. “We talked about his mom and then transitioned to talking about pretty much everything else for three hours.”
They kept in touch and met for what turned out to be a sort-of-first-date in June at a Manhattan restaurant, where Ms. Fogel had several friends in tow. On July 1, he met her family at their home in Narragansett, R.I., before they went to Newport, R.I., to spend the day together.
“I think we both felt something differently going on between us that day,” Mr. Fisher said. “In addition to our connection to this disease, we started to get to know each other a little more and began realizing we had so many other things in common, and what struck me most about being in her company was the ease in which we spoke and got along.”
By August 2017, they began seeing each other regularly, and he began “crashing at her place,” as he put it, to avoid long drives back to Connecticut. The following month, Mr. Fisher landed his job at CBS, and began apartment hunting in Manhattan.
In October, they took a trip together to Montreal that went so well, Ms. Fogel said to Mr. Fisher, “You’re not going anywhere, you’re living here with me.”
Mr. Fisher, whose mother passed away from Alzheimer’s-related complications in January, said that “her last gift to me was to bring Molly into my life.
She’s the one who got us together,” he said. “She lived long enough to see us happy and settled, and for that I know she was thankful.”
