For Bernard and Pamela Solomon, love is more than a feeling; it’s a foundation. Nearly 34 years into marriage, the couple has built a life rooted in faith, family, and service, now embarking on a new chapter as franchise owners of AtWork in Forest Park.
The Atlanta Voice: Where and when did you meet?
Pamela Solomon (PS): We met at my sister’s wedding. I was coming in from Germany, just for the wedding.
Bernard Solomon (BS): My best friend was the groom, and her sister was the bride. Prior to the wedding, I went with him to visit his girlfriend, and we met unofficially in passing. She didn’t realize that I was going to be her husband.
AV: Do you have any children or grandchildren?
PS: Three children and I am a new Grammy. We had two grandkids last year. One is now 10 months old, and one is nine months old. They live in Houston, Chicago, and the baby lives in Arkansas.
AV: What’s the key to a successful marriage?
BS: I think we both will agree that we put God first. That’s the foundation. I attribute a lot of that to Pam, because when we were dating, she came from a family where her father was a pastor, and she sort of laid down the law that if we were going to continue dating, it had to be based on the right stuff. We had a bond based on our spiritual walk from that point forward, because I started getting more serious about my spiritual walk, and it made me a better person, a better boyfriend, and a better husband and father.
PS: We also pray every morning before we leave the house, and if there’s a visitor visiting in the home, they also come into the circle, and he leads us in prayer every morning.
AV: How do you navigate being in business together with married life?
BS: You must be able to take care of business during business time and then cut it off and take care of family and marriage during that time. Sometimes they intertwine, because if something in my marriage happens during business time, I’m going to cut that off and take care of the most important part of my life, which is the marriage and family part.
AV: Why was AtWork the right choice for you all as business owners?
BS: We did a lot of praying about it. First, I retired in 2023, and both of us have been public servants throughout our careers. Pam has worked extensively with the Veterans Administration, helping veterans and making sure that they’re taken care of after their service. And I’ve been in the public-school sector, and that’s a thankless job. Both occupations are about giving back to the community, and we were looking at the possibility of owning a franchise, and AtWork rose to the top based on the mission of that work.
PS: We’ve met and learned about people who started in talent or as employees who came into an industry, started on the ground level, and have management positions today. That’s what we want. More than just to give a person a job. We want to follow that person, so they succeed, their family succeeds, and they change the course of their lives.
AV: What do you think the next 20 years for you all will look like?
BS: It’s about continuing to set the foundation for our family legacy, to make sure that our children, our children’s children, their children, will have some options as they continue through life. The bulk of our lives, most of our years are behind us, so it’s up to me and Pam to really work on how we can help ensure our kids have viable choices and options to continue what we’ve started.
AV: What advice do you have for younger couples?
PS: Put God first and be kind to one another. Marry someone you trust because I trust him, and he trusts me. I love him and like him a lot, so it’s also why we can do business together, because you need to like your partner, and that would be my advice, those things.
BS: Be adaptable. Sometimes life circumstances will throw some things in the mix, and it may not, you may not be able to rationalize in your mind why your partner is doing certain things, but you must adapt. Give your partner the benefit of the doubt, have those conversations, then 99.9% of the time, things will work out, because if you love each other, then you don’t want to hurt your partner, and if you don’t want to hurt your partner, then you’ll have those conversations that will help you steer back toward a meaningful and productive relationship when things have gone awry.
At the end of the interview, Bernard surprised his wife with a Christian version of a Valentine’s song he wrote to promote a life with the Lord.