Always putting family first

Mike and Lorie met at a small house party in 1972. She was a nursing student on OB rotation at Chester County Hospital. He was soon to return to Notre Dame for his senior year.

Mike was smitten. “It was a combination of the way she smiled, the way she looked, and her personality — feisty and funny,” he said.

The two talked to each other most of that evening — which was hosted by Mike’s best friend from Cardinal O’Hara High and a nurse at Lorie’s hospital, who were married. Mike asked Lorie for her number, and she gave it to him.

Four other nursing students were among the party guests. “All the girls were saying, ‘He was so nice! You should go out with him!’ ” Lorie remembered. “I said, ‘He’s nice, but he talks too much. I think he would get on my nerves.’ ”

When Mike called, Lorie told him the truth: She was seeing someone.

“I was disappointed that Lorie shot me down,” Mike said. “But I was going back to school anyway, so I wasn’t too concerned.” He was concerned enough to ask about her every few weeks in the letters he wrote to Chuck, his high school pal and party host.

For six months, news of Lorie was always the same. Then in spring 1973, Chuck read words he will never forget: Lorie was available.

“After I broke up with the person I was dating, I went to Chuck and Cay’s house to let them know,” Lorie said. She knew word would reach Mike. He is a big talker, Lorie said. But that thing about him getting on her nerves was just what she told herself when she wasn’t free to date him.

Within weeks he graduated, returned home to Berwyn, and headed to Chuck and Cay’s. Lorie would be there to trim Chuck’s hair.

After a few hours of talking with their friends, Lorie invited Mike to visit her at her parents’ Phoenixville home two days later.

“He was so cute, engaging, personable,” she said. “But I had to start cutting his hair, it was terrible.”

For the rest of the summer, they saw each other at least three nights a week. And they both did a lot of talking — a deep dive into their life philosophies which revealed how much they both value their Catholic faith, treasure family, and wanted kids.

They were in love, but pre-Mike, Lorie had accepted a job offer in Boca Raton, Fla. It was a brutal decision, but she felt she had to go.

“We sat in the car in her father’s driveway the last night before she left, and I sobbed and sobbed,” Mike said. He respected her decision. He didn’t know what the future held but hoped she recognized that their relationship was the real thing.

In October 1973, after six weeks in Boca, Lorie resigned to return to Mike. The weekend after she came home, at the Downingtown Inn, Mike gave Lorie an engagement ring. Five months later, on April 20, 1974, they wed at Sacred Heart Church in Phoenixville and held a reception for 125 at Dell’Aquilla’s.

“It was very easy for me to plan our wedding,” said Lorie. “My sister got married the year before, so I replicated everything she did — same church, same venue, same menu.”

Mike had used all the money he’d saved from his high school/college job at the Waynesborough Country Club to buy the ring. Lorie, who was working at Paoli Hospital, used her savings to buy them a car. But Mike had recently begun his first post-college job as an events and meeting planner for CertainTeed and he was planning a golf tournament in San Diego. The groom had to work the first few days, but the couple got a California honeymoon on the cheap.

Michael, who is now 70, and Lorie, 69, have three children — Michael Jr., Erin, and Aimee. They lived in Ridgefield, Conn., and Columbus, Ohio, before returning to Pennsylvania and establishing their home in Blue Bell in 1998.

Lorie left the workforce when the children were young, returning when they reached high school. She worked as a nurse for a total of 15 years, in hospitals and with Prudential and Aetna insurance companies. Lorie launched a second career in real estate and a third when she started a baby gift company with a partner.

Mike’s planning career took him to the Insurance Company of North America, Rosenbluth Travel, and Travelmation — a computer-based travel company.

The Lyons focused their lives on family, attending their children’s sporting, concert, and theater events. Lorie coached their girls’ championship softball team. For six consecutive summers, she and the children spent a week in Appalachia, volunteering with a group that refurbished homes. Mike is still proud of them.

Throughout his childhood, high school, and college, Mike had acted in commercials, television, and plays. He had started college as a theater major but decided he could not support himself or a theoretical family on an actor’s income.

His actual family was living in Connecticut when Mike and Lorie worried about how they would pay for their children’s college. Mike decided he needed a second job, and, for practical purposes, resumed acting.

Mike found an agent in New York and auditioned on his lunch breaks. He made a few national TV commercials and landed small parts on All My Children. “My plan worked — we were able to pay for all three of our kids’ educations strictly from the income I earned as an actor.”

Lorie’s flexible schedule allowed her to be very involved when the seven grandchildren started to arrive. Four of them live locally. “I am their official driver, who takes them to school,” she said.

Michael stepped away from event planning in 2014, when he launched a career as a motivational speaker. “Daydream it. Believe it. Achieve it.” is his mantra. His acting career continues. He’s had roles in House of Cards and Veep, and was a QVC product presenter. But Mike says people mostly recognize him from his recurring roles on ABC’s What Would You Do?, a reality show that catches real people in fake moral situations to see how they will react. “I’m usually the villain, the instigator,” he said.

When she’s not ferrying grandchildren or refurbishing old furniture and he’s not acting or motivating people, the couple love playing pickleball and traveling. They’ve been to Mexico, South Africa, west Africa, and much of Europe. They love hiking on the East Coast. COVID-19 permitting, they hope to take more European river cruises.

On April 20, the couple celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary. They attribute their success to choosing well at the beginning of their relationship, then respecting each other’s needs as individuals and finding compromises since.

“He puts me first,” said Lorie. “He’s always been a wonderful father and amazing grandfather. He just goes out of his way for our family. We get into great discussions about things. We usually end up on the same page, but when we don’t agree, we respect each other’s point of view.”

“I love that she is my best friend,” said Mike. “She has been a fabulous mother and grandmother. She is calm and keeps me grounded. She helps keep my ego in check. She fulfills and checks all the boxes of what I wanted in a life partner. Lorie is a wonderful human being.”