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  • Stories & Articles by Sonia

Articles and Stories by Sonia Pressman Fuentes

Sonia Pressman Fuentes

First Wedding at the Fontainebleau

Unpublished anecdote, November 23, 2008.

In September 1955, I was about to register for my second year as a student at the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, FL. I was living at my parents’ home in North Miami Beach.

I left home that day to register and when I got there, I was dismayed at the long line of students. I went up to the head of the line and asked the law school official at the registration desk if I couldn’t possibly be moved ahead. He told me to go back and take my place in line.

I went to telephone my parents to let them know the registration would take much longer than I planned and that I’d be home later than expected. They told me it was good I had called because they’d just been called by Leo Engel, a friend of ours, who told them he was getting married that very afternoon at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach. It was to be a small ceremony with no guests, but he wanted us there (He’d been in love with a cousin of mine in Poland.) My mother told me to get home as soon as I could so we could attend the wedding.

I then went back to the registration desk and spoke to the same law school official. I told him I’d just been informed that I had to leave as soon as possible to go home, get dressed, and attend a wedding at the Fontainebleau Hotel. He looked at me incredulous that I had made up such a ridiculous story and told me to get back and resume my place in line.

I did that, eventually registered, dashed home, changed clothes and my parents and I attended Leo Engel’s wedding, which was the first wedding at the Fontainebleau.

©2008 Sonia Pressman Fuentes