Debbie and Dean

“Jerry Springer has nothing on us,” said Dean, who first met, Debbie, when she was 15. She was his best friend’s girlfriend. A few years later Debbie introduced Dean to her older sister.

“We all got married in a double wedding when we were in our 20s,” said Debbie who along with Dean on this chilly day, were selling prom dresses and bridesmaid gowns at the Londonderry Flea Market. So to get this straight. Dean married Debbie's sister and Debbie married Dean's best friend.

And in an act that could be considered a portent of the future, the preacher got the couples mixed up. 

“Her first child is my godson,” said Dean.

“And my ex is the godfather to Dean’s oldest son.”

After a while both couples divorced. Both Debbie and Dean started dating other people.

“I swore I’d never marry again,” said Dean. 

Truth be told, said Dean, “My ex (Debbie’s sister) pushed us together. So  years later Dean asked Debbie out.  The first date – sharing cheese fries at a restaurant in a lighthouse in Maine. The couple still has an ashtray from that date as a memento.

“From then on I schmoozed her,” said Dean, who has worked as a sheet metalist or “tin knocker” most of his life.

“We were just looking at our love letters last night,” said Debbie.

And that resolve never to marry again? Out the window.

Debbie and Dean wed in June, 2001.

Dean laughs. “I didn’t want to get to know a whole new family. This was perfect.”


Londonderry N.H.