How I Almost Lost Your Mother

Desperate to impress my future in-laws at our first Passover Seder, I became the center of an elaborate family prank with the potential to become disastrous at every turn.

Illustration by Ben Nadler

Frayda and I arrived in Miami thirty hours before the Seder. I was there on a mission: to make a good — great! excellent! incredible! — first impression on her parents, six siblings, four in-laws, and nine nieces and nephews. This would all happen over Passover at this Reformed Jew’s first Orthodox Seder.

The first batch of Frayda’s family I met (two parents, a few siblings, and some in-laws) were as vibrant as she is, exactly what I imagined they’d be. I was the least religious person on the premises, yet everyone was open and accepting. All conversations were sprinkled with a similar sense of humor to the one I’ve known throughout my time with Frayda, the laughter that attracted me to her from minute one.

Yet the one person I felt obliged to impress most was the one I hadn't spoken with yet: Frayda’s older brother, Isaac, a doctor who resides in Michigan, who had long been her best friend and mentor. Ostensibly, he was destined to be most skeptical of me, not…