Dena & Marvin: A lasting love

Soon after Dene Samitz introduced her first college friend to her brother, the two fell in love. A year later, her brother’s girlfriend decided to return that matchmaking favor.

She rode the bus to Tyler School of Art and each day saw an adorable young man among the group who got off at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry. One day in 1955, she handed him a note.

“Pardon my impudence — but I think you’ll really like this girl,” Marvin read, along with Dene’s name, the West Oak Lane address where her family lived, and her phone number.

Back home in Chester, Marvin showed the note to his mother. “What would it hurt you to call?” she asked.

Marvin had to call twice before he got Dene on the line. At the end of a short but pleasant conversation, they set a date. Marvin picked her up for burgers at the Hot Shoppes at Broad and Godfrey. “I was more nervous than he was, and he was pretty nervous,” Dene remembers.

The nerves didn’t last. “He was cute, he was smart, he was kind,” she said. He was so studious that they did not see each other all that often. They fell in love anyway.

Marvin joined the Army after graduation. In addition to regular leaves, he would volunteer to bring tuberculosis patients to Pennsylvania for treatment to spend an extra day or so with Dene. In between visits, “I wrote to him every single day,” she said. “One of my letters was written on a roll of toilet paper — a whole roll.”

During Marvin’s leave in February 1957, Dene had a suggestion: “Let’s get married.” Marvin agreed, then returned to the Army.

At Temple, Dene earned a degree in elementary education and was president of her class. Her parents bought Marvin a plane ticket so he could escort her to her college prom, then fly back to base the next morning.

On June 20, 1957, Dene graduated from Temple. Two days later, on June 22, she and Marvin married in a traditional Jewish ceremony in the Adelphia’s rooftop garden, where friends and family gathered to celebrate.

Their honeymoon was a 22-hour train ride back to Chicagoland, where they rented an apartment near the base until Marvin’s discharge. After that, they moved in with Dene’s parents before renting an apartment in Chester, then buying their first home in Plymouth Meeting.

Marvin worked for a contact lens company, but soon decided to open his own optometry business, Dr. J. Marvin Bloom Associates, which operated at 12th and Market Streets for 40 years until he retired in 2000.

Dene, who is now 87, worked for two years as a first-grade teacher, took time off to have and raise children, then returned to work as a reading teacher. She later created and ran Carnival Fun, a business that provided bounce houses and games for local events. Marvin helped on weekends. To assist him with his practice, Dene created a flip chart of phone scripts to help receptionists retain patients. It took off within the industry. “It was translated into Spanish and French,” Dene said.

The couple had two daughters, Rachel and Lisa, and a son, Stephen. Stephen slept in a bureau drawer for a week until the couple’s home in Lafayette Hill was finished. The family lived there for two decades.

The couple built their life around their children. “Every game they played in, every concert they sang in, we were there,” said Dene. The family traveled together each spring or fall. “We used to rent an RV. We went throughout the whole West, all the way to California and all the national parks,” Dene said.

In addition to their children, Dene and Marvin welcomed Norberto, a foreign exchange student from Uruguay. He lived with them for about a year, but they remained in contact after he left.

Whatever family adventures unfolded, Marvin and Dene always made time for just the two of them.

One night, they planned on dinner and a movie in Philadelphia. “We were around Fifth and South Street when it poured, and we were absolutely drenched, but we didn’t want to go home,” Dene said.

They found a laundromat with a dryer in an empty back section that no one could see from the front of the store. There was a table and a box large enough to hide behind. “We got undressed, put all of our clothes into the dryer, and sat with just the box in front of us,” Dene remembered. Then they heard people enter the store and the click and whir of a camera.

“Excuse me,” Dene called out. “Do you have a camera?” At the couple’s request, the woman, who was visiting from New York, snapped their photo. They exchanged addresses so the photo could be mailed. When Dene and Marvin went to New York to meet the woman and her husband near Carnegie Hall, they held boxes in front of them to help their New York friends recognize them.

Dene and Marvin were always very active in their synagogue, Congregation Or Ami in Lafayette Hill. Marvin, a violinist who played in several community orchestras, made his strings sing at the synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur. He also brought to Or Ami the skills that allowed him to fix everything that ever broke in their home. “Every toilet that needed to be fixed, every thing that needed to be painted,” Dene said. Marvin also built a huge Hanukkah menorah that was displayed annually at a local park.

Especially after she retired from her businesses, Dene devoted her design talents to Or Ami and other nonprofits. Marvin volunteered for Meals on Wheels and drove others to dialysis and cancer treatment.

The couple downsized to a townhouse in Blue Bell. Stephen paired with Linda; Rachel, with Ron. The family grew to include five grandchildren — Lisa’s two, Alex and Ben; Rachel and Ron’s three, Jennifer, Bryan, and Scott. Dene and Marvin loved every minute of their grandchildren’s childhoods and watching them branch out on their own as adults.

Marvin was diagnosed with cancer and underwent multiple treatments for three years. “It hit his liver, and there was no chance to live through that,” Dene said. On May 24, 2014, he died at home at age 81.

“I had to deal with it,” said Dene. “I didn’t sit around crying and screaming, I just missed the guy, and I still do, nine years later.”

Their family was the couple’s greatest joy, Dene said, and its continued growth without her husband has been bittersweet. “He knew all of his grandchildren, but he never saw Jennifer marry Josh, Bryan marry Hayley, or Scott marry Morgan. And he never met our five great-grandchildren — Julia, Madelyn, Jake, and twins Sophia and Lily,” she said.

Dene downsized alone to a Plymouth Meeting apartment that is packed with memories — the old, yellowed note that her matchmaking friend wrote to Marvin. His violin. And so many photos. She lives there with her dogs, Shayna and Punim. She continues to play tennis — often doubles with daughter Lisa. When Dene was in Florida last spring, Norberto traveled to see her. He still calls her mom.

Dene loves babysitting or otherwise spending time with her great-grandchildren, some of whom are named after Marvin, using the Jewish tradition of a first name that starts with someone’s initial.

“We had the most marvelous life together; it was joyful the whole time, and that joy lives on in my memories,” Dene said. “I’ll miss Marvin forever, but I have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. How can I be sad when I have all of that?”