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SCRANTON — Lisa Pendrak and David Zwanch have known each other for 25 years. They aren’t an old married couple…yet. They are two 30-year-olds who grew up together, grew apart, and are now engaged. Their love began in grade-school and their future started at the same spot.
Zwanch proposed to Pendrak in front of St. Mary’s Assumption in hopes of making his childhood crush his future wife.
“We met in kindergarten at St. Mary’s Assumption,” Pendrak said. “We grew up a couple blocks down from one another and both went to Scranton High School. It was always kind of public knowledge that David had a crush on me all through school.”
The two became best friends. They dated their junior and senior year in high school. Then they graduated.
Pendrak went to Duquesne University, five hours away, and Zwanch stayed home and attended the University of Scranton.
“Maybe we knew we were meant to be but it definitely wasn’t at first,” Pendrak said. “We needed to be older and have lives of our own for a bit until we reconnected.”
They tried to make it work but life got in the way. The distance became to much for the two who were used to being down the street from one another.
“We dated on and off in college but there came a point were it was just too hard,” Pendrak said. “We were only 18 and I was five hours away. College happened.”
“It sucked,” Zwanch said. “But we had our college experience and life went on.”
The couple didn’t speak for seven years. It wasn’t until Pendrak came back to Scranton in 2010 for a job when they realized they had a chance to make it work.
“We just fell back into being friends again,” Zwanch said. “It was so comfortable and easy. We didn’t have the ‘Are we dating’ talk, it just happened. We both knew we had something.”
This year on a snowy Saturday, Zwanch had a box burning a hole in his pocket and one question on his mind.
“I was actually planning on proposing the week after,” he said. “We were going skiing in Lake Placid but then I found out that is where her sister got engaged. I was really antsy and already had the ring, so I had to think of something else.”
The back-up plan became a memory his future wife will have forever.
“I had no clue,” she said. “He told me we were taking a picture of all the St. Mary’s kids to give to our friend Rich at his wedding. We even had to do it on a certain day because he said one of the guys had to go back to the military. It was all a lie but I never suspected a thing.”
Zwanch had Amanda Duffy of Ace of Spade Photography, a friend from their old crew, tell Pendrak she needed to take some tests shots before everyone showed up. Pendrak said she wasn’t paying attention when Zwanch got on one knee, in the snow, and pulled out the ring.
“He was talking about how it had been 25 years and how we should make it another 25 years but I was so focused on being cold I didn’t even realize what was happening,” Pendrak said. “I was shocked. It took me a minute to verbalize the word yes.”
Once two third graders, who rode the same bus, are now on the road to being husband and wife.
“When I was sick from school I would always look forward to 2:30 in the afternoon,” she said. “I knew the bus was going to pass and I was going to get to wave to Dave. He was always going to be there.”