Affair of the Heart : Couple Remarry on the Eve of Surgery

They had been divorced for six years, but Earl Finmark still deeply loved his ex-wife. So on Thursday he surprised her in a romantic way.

He threw her a surprise wedding.

It was an odd affair of the heart in more ways than one. Finmark was scheduled to undergo a coronary artery bypass operation today at Encino Hospital and, fearing that perhaps the operation may not go well, the 64-year-old Chatsworth resident had arranged for a wedding ceremony in a hospital conference room.

Despite their divorce, Earl and June Finmark had continued to live together, a situation he and relatives confessed was a bit strange. So Earl was confident Thursday night when he escorted June into the conference room packed with relatives and hospital staff and decorated with a banner, white wedding bells, wedding cake and flowers.

“Oh, my God!” gasped June, taking in the scene. “What is going on here?”

That’s when he asked her:

“Will you marry me?”

“Oh, my God!”

Seizing an appropriate cue, Rabbi Sol Rothstein of Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge stepped forward to greet the bride. “I’m Rabbi Rothstein,” he said. “I’m here to do the job.” As the laughter subsided, Earl reminded her of his proposal.

“Do you have an answer for me?”

“Yes!”

They joined hands and stood before the rabbi, family friends Helen Zavack and Joe Pezzner serving as matron of honor and best man. Zavack had introduced the Finmarks at a birthday party in 1948.

It was a quick romance, about six months, before they were wed in June the first time around. Earl’s first proposal also was a surprise. “I took her to a nightclub and I gave the waiter her ring,” he recalled earlier Thursday. The waiter brought over the ring on a plate and presented it with a flourish.

They started a business together, Finmark Floor Covering, and eventually their three sons--Glenn, Randy and Jon--joined them in the business. The sons, who looked on Thursday, described their father as a workaholic, and it was his demanding pace that contributed to his heart problems.

He had an artery bypass operation 10 years ago. His arteries around the heart have once again become clogged, with only one remaining partially open, said Dr. Mohammad A. Gharavi, who was to perform today’s surgery.

Gharavi, chief of cardiac surgery at the hospital, called the operation “as delicate and risky as they come” but said Finmark’s prospects for a sound recovery remain good.

The Finmarks had discussed remarrying in recent months and June Finmark even raised the issue when she took her ex-husband to the hospital Thursday. “You know, I thought we were going to be married,” she reminded him.

Finmark said he replied: “Yeah, yeah, sure. We will when I get out.”

Finmark later said he wanted to renew his vows not only for love but to make sure his wife would be included in his estate and provided for if he was incapacitated or died.

The ceremony itself was brief, but there was hardly a dry eye in the place. “Marriage represents hope,” Rothstein told the couple. “When two people become husband and wife, they are expressing hope . . . hope for the years that lie ahead.”

Rothstein turned to Earl: “It is with that hope,” he said, “that you are going to face tomorrow.”