PASCACK VALLEY—Dr. Edie Weinthal and Greg Germakian—both longtime Pascack Valley residents—are engaged and planning to tie the knot this May in an intimate ceremony at Bear’s Cove in Ramsey, where they now live.
Edie, 75, moved to River Vale at age 5 and remained in the community for most of her life. She attended Roberge Elementary, Holdrum Middle School, Pascack Valley High School, and graduated with the first-ever class at Pascack Hills in 1967.
A retired English supervisor for the Pascack Valley Regional High School District, she spent her career shaping generations of students while raising her two children in the same town. Her daughter, Sandi, now teaches dance and theater at Westwood Middle School, and is raising her family in River Vale; her son, Brian, is the chief administrative law judge for the Human Rights Commission in Chicago.
Greg, 76, purchased his home in Hillsdale in 1984, where he raised his three children—also graduates of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District. A professional industrial engineer, Greg spent his career designing and installing food service equipment for McDonald’s, helping to open restaurants in over 56 countries. He was part of the team behind the two-sided “clamshell” grill and played a leading role in launching McDonald’s locations around the world.
Though he retired in 2020, he continues to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, and was instrumental in opening the first Ronald McDonald House in Costa Rica.
Both widowed—Greg lost his wife to breast cancer in 2004, Edie lost her husband to pancreatic cancer in 2010—they were introduced in 2023 by a mutual friend: Edward Sandt, a former English teacher at Pascack Hills who Edie herself had hired years earlier.
“Edward called me out of the blue one day and asked if I was seeing anyone,” Edie recalls. “He said he had a very special neighbor—Greg—and thought we might hit it off.”
He was right. Their first date was at Del Fino’s in Montvale, where they quickly discovered that their lives had run in parallel for decades. Both raised families in the Pascack Valley region. Their children share remarkably similar paths: Navy service, careers in law and dance, even the same alma maters. They had dozens of mutual friends and had unknowingly lived just a mile apart for more than 35 years.
“It was as though the universe was saving us for each other,” said Edie.
Their second date was at a Pascack Hills golf team fundraiser hosted by Mr. Sandt, and since then the couple has traveled together to Costa Rica, Aruba, Florida, Maine, Chicago, Cape Cod, and Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, they volunteered at the original Ronald McDonald House, serving breakfast to families—one of many ways they’ve chosen to share their joy with others.
In February, Greg planned to propose during a Valentine’s Day dinner in Aruba. Before he popped the question, he sent handwritten notes to Edie’s children—mailed by playful guile from Botswana—asking for their blessing.
“My kids thought it was a prank at first,” Edie said, laughing. “But once they opened the letters, they were overjoyed.”
Though a resort-wide virus delayed the proposal, Greg ultimately surprised Edie at her favorite restaurant with a large, custom-designed box. Inside were a family of nested boxes, the final one revealing a handwritten note: “I declare you are the love of my life. Will you be my wife?”
With tears in her eyes, she said yes.
The couple will wed on May 17 in a private ceremony surrounded by their children and grandchildren, followed by a “drinks and dessert” open house at their Ramsey home. Instead of gifts, they’re asking loved ones to donate to the Ronald McDonald Pennsylvania Kid’s Camp, a one-week summer experience for children with cancer and their siblings.
“We don’t need things,” Edie said. “We just want this joy to ripple outward.”
Their engagement was recently toasted by Greg’s long-standing “coffee group” of friends from David’s Bagels in Washington Township, who surprised him with a celebration of their own—another sweet chapter in a story still being written.
Dr. Edie Weinthal and Greg Germakian celebrate their engagement. Courtesy photo.