Martin Schmaltz, a physics professor at Boston University, preferred to study the rate of the expansion of the universe over dating.
“After my divorce I was withdrawn,’’ said Dr. Schmaltz, 53, who researches theoretical particle theory and cosmology. “But I was starting to feel it would be nice to reconnect with the rest of the world.”
Enter Dina Mara Lowenstein, 52, who got an email out of the blue about “a tall German dude” from a mutual friend, prompted by his wife to make the match. He was Ms. Lowenstein’s childhood friend and Dr. Schmaltz’s graduate school buddy. Ms. Lowenstein, who at the time was living in New York, didn’t see a future relationship developing, but decided to give it a try, despite the distance.
“I’m in my early 50s, with two great dogs, a good client base and a lot of friends,” said Ms. Lowenstein, who is a lawyer in private practice in New York providing outsourced general counsel services to small businesses.
A couple of hours after their friend introduced them via email, Dr. Schmaltz reached out to Ms. Lowenstein, which launched their daily chats by email, text, phone or video. In early February, Dr. Schmaltz went to New York to work with an N.Y.U. colleague, and meet Ms. Lowenstein.
She asked him to meet her at an Apple store on the Upper West Side, where she was heading to get a screen protector for her phone. He was already there when she walked in. “I saw a 6 foot 5 thin reed of a man. He was leaning over people,” she said. “But he smiled, and I already knew that this was going to be something really important.”
He was captivated by her too.
“I saw a great smile and beautiful green eyes and long hair,’’ he said. “She was much shorter than me, but everyone is much shorter than me.” (She’s 5 foot 4).
They then went to a nearby Shake Shack to grab dinner, and as they waited for their order at the counter Ms. Lowenstein began dancing to the loud music playing. He nonchalantly joined in.
“It felt quite natural,’’ he said. “I wasn’t thinking too much. I was enjoying myself,” and later as she pointed out the downtown subway entrance at West 79th Street, she looked up at him, then got on tiptoes to give him a gentle kiss, as he, surprised, leaned down for it.
He saw her two more times before he returned to Boston, and met her two rescue dogs, Charlie and Juni. They soon began seeing each other every other week.
“We knew within a couple of months, that this was very different,” she said, “and felt very committed very quickly.”
They went kayaking, sailing, canoeing and did some hiking, but Ms. Lowenstein had her limits.
Dr. Schmaltz, who has scaled 54 peaks higher than 14,000 feet in Colorado, and also Argentina’s Aconcagua in the Andes, and Mount Rainier in Washington, decided he could do his climbing with his other friends. “She’s so lovely and fun to do other things.”
Within a few months, she decided to move to Boston in July to be with him. By the end of the year, they bought a Queen Anne Victorian on a hill three blocks away from their apartment.
“It’s our castle on the rock,’’ he said, which they had been renovating while still at their apartment.
They were married March 20 in their apartment in Jamaica Plain, by Norman B. Cohen, a justice of the peace in Brookline.
“I had to stand on a step stool,” she said with a laugh, “so I could give him a proper marital kiss.”
