Love Story: Alan and Cindy Bergman, of Port Washington

Alan Bergman of Port Washington recalls the unusual way he met his future wife, Cindy.

My wife picked me out of the phone book. In 1984, Cindy Bergman, her maiden name, was employed as a Wall Street stockbroker with Shearson Lehman Brothers. On the hunt for new clients in that pre-internet era, she decided on a unique marketing strategy of searching the White Pages for individuals with the same last name as her. This would serve as a conversation starter and an instant bond between her and the prospective client. She looked for Bergmans who lived in nearby neighborhoods in the event she had to make a home visit to explain various investing options.

Her search yielded one Alan Bergman, me, who lived in Brooklyn Heights, just a few blocks from her Cobble Hill residence. She called me to introduce herself. I then received an invitation in the mail from Cindy to a seminar on IRAs, a new product at the time, being held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. We met at the program, shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries. I attended another seminar that she invited me to, taking a friend along this time. When he asked me about Cindy, the thought instantly occurred to me to ask her out on a date. I called her the next day and she agreed to go out with me.

Over dinner the following weekend at a Japanese restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, we had a surprisingly long, frank and candid conversation about our lives and aspirations. We learned the unfortunate coincidence that we had both recently lost our fathers, who had each passed away at age 57. We also realized that our fathers, both from the Bronx, had mutual friends. We wondered if they had ever met each other. I think that we left that date somewhat startled at how atypical a first date it actually was.

Cindy was 27 and I was 29. She grew up in Oceanside and I was originally from Westchester.

Our relationship was on fast-forward from that point on. Each time Cindy Bergman called me at work, my secretary thought she was a family member and always put her call right through.

On March 3, 1985, less than a year after that first date, we were walking down the aisle of the Oceanside Jewish Center as husband and wife, Alan Bergman and Cindy Bergman-Bergman.

That year we left Brooklyn for Port Washington, where we have lived ever since. After the birth of our two sons, Cindy went back to school and received her master’s in audiology from Hofstra University. She is an audiologist with I Love Hearing in Port Washington and also a health coach for Optavia. Since 1981, I have run my family’s graphic arts firm founded 96 years ago by my grandfather. It is now Gutenberg Graphics in Long Island City.

Cindy and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary last week with a weekend stay in Manhattan, where we took in a couple of shows and visited some museums. There have been a few unexpected bumps and traumas along the way — our second house in Port Washington burned to the ground a week prior to our moving in — but it has truly been a most-excellent lifetime together. And, when both families get together, there are plenty of Mrs. Bergmans in the room. Not only did Cindy get a new client, she took him for all that he’s worth!

— With Virginia Dunleavy