Matt Berbeza from Wilmington, and Rachael Pasternak, who grew up in Glen Mills, met online in February of 2020 after both had just started dating again.

They seemed to hit it off, so Berbeza was surprised when Pasternak disappeared, writes Kellie Patrick Gates for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A week went by, then Pasternak reconnected. 

They decided to meet in person and go ice skating.

“Matt went ice skating. I want falling,” Pasternak said.

Turns out Pasternak disappeared for that week because she was celebrating with her mom in Paris at the end of intense treatments for breast cancer.

Other men had walked away when they found out about her diagnosis. Berbeza stuck around.

He had lost his first wife unexpectedly on Christmas Day in 2018 after 12 years together. Pasternak didn’t want him to go through that again.  

“It doesn’t matter,” Berbeza said. So, at the height of COVID-19 closures, they hung out together mostly at Pasternak’s Aston townhouse or Berbeza ’s Wilmington home.

It got really serious, and more fun.

Berbeza proposed to Pasternak at the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

They married Dec. 9, 2022, with vows of love and humor.

Read more about the marriage of Rachael Pasternak and Matthew Berbeza in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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The romance of ice skating was captured perfectly in the 1947 film The Bishop’s Wife.