Story by Beverly Weiss (BBO: natasha11)

My first encounter with bridge was at 16. Shortly after seeing Dr. Zhivago 2x and falling in love with Omar Sharif, I read a bridge column in The New York Times that quoted him saying, “It is easy to find a beautiful woman, but hard to find a good bridge partner.”

Fast forward 25 years to 1990, I had a friend who was going to teach me tennis. However, after 15 minutes on the court, he put the racket down and kindly said, “Maybe it is better if I teach you bridge.” That was it. We took a few lessons and were told to go to any game but the Big Friday night game. It was a large competitive game run by Florence and Paul Silver (Joshua Donn’s grandparents) and the best players in the area competed. Of course, my bridge partner said, “We are going to the Friday night game.” There were 18 tables. We moved from table to table, either giving gifts or fixes. You could hear some of the players snickering “Fix.” One woman became enraged and said we did not belong in the game, but again my partner made us go. And we learned. I made close friendships and eventually met my love, Martin Weiss.

He was a far better player and would get angry with me. In an attempt to manage his temper, he wrote “Behave like a Mensch” at the top of his bridge card, but alas, it did not work. As time passed, I became a better player but learned that I had to respond in an equal tone, and that was the only thing that worked. This resulted in my Pasadena friend, not knowing the history, gifting me a “Bridge Witch” tee shirt.

In 2013 my husband had a minor stroke and could no longer drive. I was working at a small company with younger people who played loud music. It was difficult writing my economic analysis in that environment and one day I said, “Any chance we could change the music or use ear phones?” They said, “Beverly, do you want to work from home?” and that was it.

My husband and I moved shortly after to be near family. We landed not knowing a soul. We played our first game in Arcadia and became part of a beautiful, warm, welcoming bridge community. My husband wrote the newsletter for a while, I became the persona non grata advocating for bridgemates and sorters but also volunteered for running the Christmas Dinner charity auction and began a New Year’s Eve potluck bridge party that celebrated New Year’s Eve as it clocked in hourly across the world, culminating with New York at 9:00 PM PT.

My dear sweet husband passed away this past May. We met at the bridge table in the early 1990’s and it took 10 years before we had our first date, which never ended.

PS: My sister went to a Bridge Club after her divorce having not played bridge since college. She assured them she knew the game and they found her a partner. He asked: Stayman? My sister responded, “Sandra Green.”