MET AND WED, THANKS TO US–Lenore and Brad Lewis of Oak Park celebrate their 15th anniversary with The Acorn, our sister publication, at Westlake Village Inn. They met through a “roommate wanted” classified ad and Brad proposed to Lenore later in an Acorn advertisement on the Sheriff’s Blotter page, which she always read–and still does. The proposal came in the issue she’s holding while Brad holds a copy of the T.O. Acorn that ran the week of their anniversary. When Lenore Marcus answered an Acorn classified ad seeking a roommate, she had no idea she’d end up with much more than a place to live.

The ad brought her a husband, a family and a business.

Marcus is now Lenore Lewis, married to Brad Lewis, who was formerly her landlord. He proposed to her—how else?— through an Acorn ad. The couple recently celebrated their 15th anniversary and contacted The Acorn to express their gratitude for the paper’s involvement in their lives.

“We thought it was great that somebody was proposing in The Acorn,” said Steve Holt, who remembered it well.

“Then we found out they’d met through The Acorn in a classified ad—and that made it even more fun. It said something about our readers. It also said something about us. And both were good things,” Holt said.

“We have a certain affinity for The Acorn,” Lewis said. “Lenore and I are avid readers of The Acorn because of the original introduction of how we met.”

The story began in 1992 when Lenore, who was living in Woodland Hills, decided to move to the Conejo Valley, where friends lived. Not wanting to commit to a long-term lease, she decided to rent a room. She answered The Acorn ad placed by Brad Lewis offering the master suite of his Oak Park town house. Brad, who was divorced, and his then-8- year-old son, Ryan, were living in the downstairs area of the home.

“There was a part of me that almost knew when I first spoke to him on the phone,” Lenore said. “He was just a really nice guy, and he took such wonderful care of his son. As crazy as it seemed to everybody else—and believe me everyone thought I was out of my mind—I just knew that it would work.”

Lenore moved in with Brad in October, and they began dating in January. But first, Lenore tried setting Lewis up with friends.

“I started to realize that I actually didn’t want him to meet anyone good,” Lenore said.

She began getting up early in the morning to have coffee with Brad before he left for work.

“It was amazing how at 6 in the morning my hair and makeup were already done,” Lenore joked. “Having the advantage of seeing someone on a daily basis, you get to know who they really are.”

When Brad went on a blind date, Lenore said she was a wreck the entire evening.

She needn’t have been.

“I’m sitting with my blind date thinking, ‘I have a whole lot more fun just hanging out with Lenore,’” Brad said.

Less than 24 hours later, he asked Lenore out.

In December 1993, when Brad was ready to propose, he decided to do so in The Acorn. Knowing that Lenore was a dedicated reader of the paper’s Sheriff’s Blotter, he placed an ad directly above the blotter asking Lenore to marry him.

“I kind of was expecting that it might be coming, but the ad in The Acorn was a complete surprise,” Lenore said.

The couple celebrated their 15th anniversary on Oct. 23 at the Westlake Village Inn, where they took a photo of themselves holding the Dec. 22, 1993 Acorn with the proposal ad.

They remain in Oak Park but now live in a single-family home they purchased together, out of which they run an embroidery/ promotional product business called “Embroider This . . . Promote That!”

Lenore left her job in film and television production and Brad left a job selling computer hardware and software to start their own firm nearly 10 years ago.

“I’m very comfortable with Lenore,” Brad said. “She is a person I know I can grow old with.”

“I think it’s the feeling of being completely comfortable and confident and that’s why working together and being together 24 hours a day is fun,” Lenore said. “We do laugh every day.”