So Much To Talk About

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: April 2023

In a way the story of Wendy Strong and Sam Lupas is a tale about the persistence of their two sisters.

As Wendy told me, “They had worked together for years and always had a vision that Sam and I would be a great match for each other.”

Sam recalls that “My sister would not leave me alone; she insisted I call Wendy.”

Still, the two resisted multiple attempts by their siblings to set them up – that is, until they talked on the phone.

It turned out they had much to talk about! Both snow skiers and adventure seekers, they had a lot of mutual friends and had even worked for the same company in different summers on Nantucket.

They agreed to go out.

It was the fall of 1988. Wendy, a native of Savannah, was selling advertising for Atlanta’s KICKS 101.5 radio. Sam, who had grown up in a small town outside of Philadelphia had just moved to Atlanta to help run a family business.

On their first date, they went to a restaurant in Atlanta’s Virginia-Highlands. They hit it off immediately.

“Wendy was not shy and spoke her mind. She’s smart and funny and beautiful and didn’t make a big deal out of the fact that I was a Yankee,” Sam said.

Wendy recalls that “Sam was super easy-going, with a very chill demeanor and a great sense of humor. He has beautiful blue eyes and a great laugh.”

Sam recalls that, “We talked about everything – travels, friends, skiing, our mutual love of the mountains.” He spoke of the several years he spent “bumming around Europe after graduating from the University of Vermont”- and his career playing Lacrosse, both in college and for one year in Australia. He explained that before moving to Atlanta he had worked in New York for four years for a division of Dun and Bradstreet. Wendy told Sam that after receiving a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, she had lived in Vail and Nantucket. And she revealed that she was in a long-time relationship with a college boyfriend.

So they became fast friends instead – spending weekdays; running, getting together for dinner with friends, and frequently talking late into the night. They refused to ruin what was fast becoming a close-knit friendship. But they could only hold on for so long. After six weeks of platonic friendship, Sam said, “I want this to be something more and you’re with someone else, so I might just take a walk on the whole thing.” After their first kiss, Wendy agreed “It was going to be something more.” The relationship got serious quickly.

Wendy fell further for Sam when his brother’s first child was born. “Seeing him so touched by the experience after visiting the family at the hospital was the sweetest thing I had ever seen. That’s when I thought he might be the one for me.”

For his part, Sam knew it was meant to be from the start. “I knew from the first date,” he said, “I just loved the way she walked and talked and feeling like I was with someone I had known my whole life.”

In the ensuing two years their feelings grew as they cemented their bond and got to know each other’s friends and family. Sam proposed the Christmas of 1990. They were married in Savannah, October 1991, on the weekend the Atlanta Braves won the pennant.

For a time, they remained in Atlanta, got two labs and in 1993 bought a home in Buckhead. All the while they were visiting Lake Glenville, eventually buying property there. Their son Sammy was born in 1996, and in 1998 Wendy gave birth to their daughter Molly. It was then that they decided to leave Atlanta.

Before the birth of their children, they had invested in a “spec” house in Trillium in Cashiers. While overseeing that project, they realized there were opportunities for development in the area. They “took a leap of faith” and purchased a 100-acre tract in Lake Glenville and moved into the estate home on the property. Their third child, Gracie, was born in 2003. The development of that tract – what became The Lake Club – was 13 years in the making.

In 2009 Wendy started Gracewear – an inspirational jewelry brand and eventually opened a woman’s boutique in Cashiers. Sam is a founding broker at Landmark Realty Group in Cashiers.

As they reflect on more than 30 years of marriage, they count their children as their proudest achievement and credit their perseverance and faith for the success of their marriage. They remain each other’s best friends, and their greatest joy is, as Wendy recounts, “When we’re all together as a family – when I can cook good meals, and we can gather together at the table.”