Some Singles got married, which brought me joy

Marrying people off was never the goal of the Singles project. But it was wonderful when it happened.

In 2009, our Sexy Singles spread featured Shari Smith, a probation officer from Mount Airy who recently became a realtor. She showed up for a Singles photo shoot in Atlantic City with her mother, grandmother, and young son in tow. She had nominated herself just on a lark, never really thinking that she would even be selected. “I really felt like I was a mini-celebrity,” she recalled recently. “With all the cameras going on and with all of the wardrobe changes and the makeup artist, I really felt special that day.”

At the time, she was 25 and had no idea how much her life was about to change. She received hundreds of emails, she said. “It became a little overwhelming.”

A few days after her photo appeared in the paper that hot July, she got on the same train she had been taking home from Suburban Station for years. It had been raining, and she was wearing a hat to protect her hair.

She couldn’t help but notice the conductor. She thought he was handsome, so she removed her hat and shook her long curls out. Suddenly, he recognized her. Are you the Sexy Single? he asked.

Looking back, she doesn’t think he would have asked her out if he hadn’t known for a fact that she was unmarried.

Four years later, Smith and Woodville Jackson were engaged. They made a music video to the Beyoncé hit song, “‘03 Bonnie & Clyde,” at the Bleu Martini lounge in Old City, where he’d popped the proverbial question. They surprised guests at their engagement party in 2013 by changing into wedding attire and getting married during the event. They each brought a young son into the marriage and together had a daughter who’s now 12.

Another former Single from 2004, Realtor Jill Rizen, got “all types of emails from all types of people” after her photo appeared in the paper. One of the people who spotted her was her future husband, Andrew Hennig.

Another former Single, Debbie Foster Lewis, married at age 60 to a man who emailed her after he saw her in the paper in 2007.

It’s wonderful to think the paper played a tiny role in the creation of these beautiful families.