Second chance in reunited romance

STAR-CROSSED, THEN NOT JANICE RUDE AND PRENTISS WILLSON MET: 1961, at Occidental College in Los Angeles MARRIED: August 19, 2012, at Occidental College Here's how Prentiss Willson

remembers the first time he saw Janice Rude: "She was working the breakfast shift at the cafeteria at Occidental College, where we were both students. She was a year ahead of me — and

beautiful." He was always early to meals — it's just his way — so he would see her there. Then Janice surprised Prentiss with a gutsy move. When she didn't see him for the

college's pre-Thanksgiving dinner, she sent a friend after him. The day after Thanksgiving, Janice drove 150 miles to Santa Maria, Calif., to knock on his door. "My mom was

immediately enchanted," Prentiss says. "As was I." A 1962 newspaper clipping reported their engagement, noting that the wedding date was "undetermined." But parental

disapproval got in the way. Janice says her father said, "Stop seeing that boy, or I'll cut off your tuition — and you damn well better listen to me." As Janice explains,

"The Willsons were East Coast people with important careers. My father was a street-smart rough guy who didn't think intellectual knowledge was worth anything." Janice's

mother's support notwithstanding, the young lovers were unable to make it work. Janice returned the ring. Prentiss went on to graduate from Harvard Law School and practice in the San

Francisco Bay Area. Janice moved to Los Angeles and eventually to Reno, Nevada, to run her family's diving board business. Over 47 years, each married and divorced multiple times. Their

paths crossed occasionally through friends. And once, when both were single, they even talked about getting back together. "I was an idiot [for not rekindling the romance at that

time]," Prentiss says. "After that," Janice says, "I tried to stop thinking about him." But in 2010 she decided to give it one last go. She accepted his brunch

invitation "to see if the spark was there. I told my daughter, 'This might be goodbye forever.'" Not a chance. When Janice walked into San Francisco's Cliff House

for that last-ditch date, Prentiss says, "I told her, 'You're wearing the same color slacks you wore to Thanksgiving in 1961.' We took a walk overlooking the Pacific, and

I asked if I could kiss her." Six months later, they became re-engaged. In 2012 they married at Occidental College. When their mothers, who'd never met, died within months of each

other, the couple discovered that both moms had saved the original engagement announcement. "They got that we couldn't find unconditional love with anyone else," Prentiss

says. "We lament every day that we missed being together. That's about 17,500 days — but who's counting?" Gayle King and Frank Edwards reunited after a painful breakup

Left image courtesy of Gayle King Now retired and in their 70s, they've made their home in Yountville in the Napa Valley. "We feel like we're 18 again," Janice says,

"blissfully in love." CALLING FOR A SECOND CHANCE GAYLE KING AND FRANK EDWARDS MET: 1978, at a friend's Chicago apartment RECONNECTED: February 2011, at a French restaurant in

Chicago When Frank Edwards first laid eyes on Gayle King (not to be confused with the CBS anchor and Oprah BFF with the same name) at a friend's apartment in Chicago, his reaction was 

_wow_. "She stopped by in a green coat and a beret, and I remember thinking,_This woman is special._" They hit it off that night in 1978, with Gayle appreciating his 6-foot-4-inch

height: "At 5-foot-10, I'd always found it difficult to find a boyfriend who was taller than I am." Their romance flourished, but after seven years, as Gayle hit her mid-30s,

she began to worry that her biological clock was winding down. "I gave Frank the old ultimatum," she recalls. "When he wasn't ready [for a commitment], I lost faith in

the relationship and finally ended it." It was a painful breakup for them both. Nonetheless, she met another man, married and had a daughter. Frank, true to form, stayed single — and,

through mutual friends, kept tabs on Gayle, "the best girlfriend I ever had." When he heard she had divorced in 2011, he invited her to lunch, he says, and "came loaded for

bear, in a limo, with flowers." He traces his eagerness to a 2003 health trauma that landed him in a coma for three days: "Once you almost die, you realize what's really

important. I was a fool to have let Gayle go." They've been a couple ever since that lunch, though they maintain separate homes. "We have responsibilities to other

people," explains Gayle, now 60. Frank, 62, is raising his 13-year-old nephew, and Gayle's daughter fell ill with a condition requiring extensive therapy. The couple manages to get

together about three times a week. "I can't give anybody advice," Frank says, "except to say that if life offers you a second chance, be willing to take it. Our lives

are hard, but our relationship is easy."