Kristi, Chloe and Brian Kaplon. (Courtesy photo)
They were 3 years old when they met at Temple Ramat Zion Preschool in Northridge - a couple of toddlers playing house.
Twenty-one years later, Kristi Pinsker and Brian Kaplon got married.
The couple set up real house in Northridge in 2004, and had their first child two years ago - a girl, Chloe. Kristi's expecting again this May. Twins this time - a boy and a girl.
The couple who met in preschool were leading a storybook life until it all crumbled into tragedy last week.
Police reports say Kaplon, a finance executive at NBC Universal, was in the garage of David Andrew Armstrong, a friend, at 12:45 a.m. on Friday, March 18, when he was shot in the chest and killed.
Initially, it was thought to be an accident - Armstrong showing Kaplon some weapons he was collecting when one accidentally went off.
On Thursday, though, the accident became a homicide case. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office charged Armstrong with murder. An investigation into exactly what happened is continuing.
"We just don't know, it doesn't make any sense," Kristi's mother, Teena Farar, told me Friday.
"Kristi and his (Armstrong's) wife have been best friends since third grade. He and Brian would get together occasionally... They weren't good friends."
Jerrold
Kazdoy, Kristi's uncle, e-mailed me Thursday to remind me I had written about the couple in 2004 shortly before their marriage.I had nominated them for the Guinness Book of Records in a new category - married couple who met the earliest in life.
"How many couples can say they met the love of their life in preschool?" the couple's preschool teacher, Betty Gorelick, told me at the time.
"They've gone from playhouse to setting up their own house."
And now the fairytale is over. Kristi's a 32-year-old widow with a two-year-old toddler and twins on the way in a couple of months.
Kristi graduated from CSUN and taught school until Chloe was born. Brian graduated from UC Santa Barbara and earned his MBA at USC, becoming a CPA.
Their family and friends remain in a state of shock and disbelief, Kazdoy says.
"We go from trying to understand the situation and making some sense of it - to accepting the reality that sometimes bad things happen without rhyme or reason - to trying to find the logic behind it all.
"It's like a bad dream."
When Brian was buried Wednesday at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park more than 800 mourners came to pay their respects.
"Everybody knew and loved Brian. He was a warm, easy going, wonderful guy," Farar said.
That's what her daughter saw in the little boy she played house with in preschool.
Her future Prince Charming.
Now the fairytale is over. Cinderella is a widow with one child and two more on the way. Heartbreaking.
A fund has been set up to help Kristi raise her children now that Brian, the family breadwinner, is gone.
Donations can be sent to - For benefit of the family of Brian Kaplon, c/o US Trust, Bank of America, 1100 N. King St., Bracebridge I, Wilmington, DE 19884. Attn: Laura Baerwald.
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