What makes people do for others without thinking twice? What makes someone part of most every service organization in her town or brings a man to work each and every weekday humming happily to himself?

You’ve seen these two in some place or another in town. Claire Eberbach Smith has worked in several different businesses in Sayville such as Connie’s Lingerie with Ann Morrison, Fire Flies and Katherine’s. Dave Smith has been our own PrintSmith for twenty-eight years. These two are energetic, positive and caring members of our town. They embody what Sayville is all about.

Claire is a member of the Pilot Club of Sayville where she has the distinction of being past president, Sayville Village Improvement Society, Sayville Garden Club, and a chef for Good Shepherd’s Soup Kitchen where she prepares approximately forty-eight meals twice a month for the less fortunate and, as her husband, Dave says, “Then comes home and cooks for me.” These two laughed together at the thought.

Dave is the secretary of the Greater Sayville Chamber of Commerce. As a couple, they are members of the Bayport Heritage Society where Claire sits on the board and they are members of the Saber Club.

But Claire and Dave Smith have a sweet and tender story behind the titles and memberships. It’s what took the two of them as good individuals and knitted them into the magnificent couple they are.

Claire came to Sayville from Montreal, Canada sixty-four years ago. She worked herself up from teller at Oysterman’s Bank to mortgage officer and held that position for twenty-five years before working in Manhattan for various mortgage companies. When she retired from the Metropolitan Life Mortgage Company, she “retired to Sayville,” as she put it.

Meanwhile Dave ran his PrintSmith business on South Main Street where Claire was one of his customers. Dave remembers thinking, “Claire is a very nice lady. I’d like to get to know her better.” One time when Dave’s son and son-in-law backed out of an upstate camping trip, he asked Claire to go with him instead. Her response was, “Are you crazy?”

“I tried to avoid him after that, but Dave was persistent,” Claire told me.

Soon thereafter in 1992, Sayville had its terrible rash of fires and the PrintSmith shop was decimated. The Chamber of Commerce raised money for those put out of business by holding a fire auction. It seems that Claire didn’t have her car and needed a ride home that night. Dave offered her one. “After a long pause, she said ‘why not?’” Dave recalled the evening, and then they talked. “We connected at the Sayville Inn after the fire auction. The rest is history.”

Dave was out of business for three months, but with the help of the Greater Sayville Chamber of Commerce’s Sayville Fire Relief Fund and friends Sheila Rettaliata, Peter Cohalan and Dennis O’Dorhorty Sr., Dave reestablished PrintSmith at 23 Candee Avenue and has been there for the past sixteen years.

Claire recalled their dating. “He used to drop in and always had a bouquet of flowers. He asked me out for dinner on Valentine’s Day. He was inexperienced at dating. He didn’t make any reservations. We went from one restaurant to another and eventually from Patchogue to Bluepoint to Bayport to Sayville to West Sayville and ended up in a Mexican restaurant in Oakdale. It was the funniest thing!”

“I was so embarrassed,” said Dave, “but it all worked out.” After thirteen years of dating and many marriage proposals, Claire finally accepted.

Married five years now, Claire and Dave told me, “We were finally married in Sayville – at the Sayville Inn, where it all began and we were surrounded by a large group of friends.”

So what is this couple’s secret? “I have to keep busy,” says Claire. “I enjoy it.” So Claire and Dave grow their own vegetables and herbs and then Claire cooks them. An accomplished cook, Claire has an extensive library of cooking and gardening books, both in English and French. Claire’s light blue eyes sparkled while she recalled her younger days. “The kitchen was my mother’s sanctuary. No one was allowed in. I didn’t know how to cook. Then my mother said, ‘I taught you everything about cooking; I taught you how to read!’”

When they’re not working at their jobs or at meetings or gardening, and when Claire is not cooking, Claire and Dave Smith can be found helping out at local walkathons, heading clothing and backpack drives for SVIS, accruing haircuts for the Pilot Club of Sayville to give away, and rounding up food for the Sayville Food Pantry. They are truly Mr. and Mrs. Sayville.

Oh, and by the way, the real secret is, of course, love – of life, of each other and of Sayville.

Grace Papagno has lived in Sayville for over thirty years. She loves her town and loves to write, so writing for Sayville.com is a natural combination for her. She can be reached at lady33g@verizon.net