A Couple From the US Reunites After 50 Years of Separation, and People Are Drowning in Tears

It was the summer of 1962 when Janice Rude and Willson Prentiss first met in the cafeteria of Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. Janice used to work there part-time. After a while, they decided to get married, but their marriage was unlike any other, it took them nearly 50 years to tie the knot. Keep reading to find out how one man’s will turned their life upside down.

Here at Bright Side, we favor never-ending love and are against all social notions that step in the way of true love and loving soulmates that can’t be together because of discrimination on any basis.

Willson used to wake up every morning to see Janice in the cafeteria, calling attention to the importance of their morning exchanges. Willson was younger than Janice and during their school days he never thought he had a chance with her. To put it in his own words he says, “She was just too beautiful for me.”

Despite all that, they kept seeing each other and it was during Thanksgiving when Janice gave him the surprise of his life. Asking for his address from a friend, Janice drove almost 150 miles to spend the weekend with him and his family. Let us not forget how hard it was back then for a woman to drive to an almost stranger’s house uninvited and unannounced under the influence of pure romance.

Willson was happy that she did that and the couple announced their engagement in December of 1962 not so long after. A local newspaper covered their announcement in the news and wrote about the happy couple.

When Janice told her father about her plans to marry Willson, he wasn’t pleased, to say the least. Like many women of that time, Janice’s life decisions were dependent on her father. He demanded for her to end the relationship or he threatened to cut off the financial support for her education.

Janice’s father disapproved because Willson was Jewish and Janice’s family was Christian. She was desperate to finish college and become intellectually and financially independent. Although, Janice’s mother saw the depth of their relationship and decided to step in, but there wasn’t much that she could really do. Despite all her efforts, Janice was forced to break up the relationship with the love of her life.

Financially dependent and with broken hearts, the 2 decided to break up and move on with their lives by choosing separate paths. But this isn’t the end of this love story it’s just how their love started. Up until now, you’ve heard, read, or watched this story again and again but what you’re going to read might as well be in a movie script, not a real-life situation.

Willson went to Harvard and became a top attorney. Janice, on the other hand, took over her family’s diving board business. At this point, both got married and divorced from different people. There had been a recent family death in both the families, they both lost their loving mothers. But it was these deaths that brought them together once again. Usually when a loved one passes away, you go through their belongings; these moments are usually emotional and you feel the presence of the one you lost.

Both Janice and Willson found the newspaper cut out of their engagement announcement from 1962 in their mother’s belongings. A tickle from past can be horrifying, exciting, and sometimes can even cause you to break out in a cold sweat. They both met before that day and a couple of times after, but as you know they were married so the time was not quite right.

When they were both single again, Willson asked Janice out to brunch. They were responding to the call of the fate that was setting up the story to reunite them again. After almost 17,500 days apart from each other, the couple met at the Cliff House in San Francisco for their first date in the second inning of their life.

Their new wedding invitations contained the original clipping from their 1962 engagement announcement that was found in their mother’s belongings. On August 19, 2012, Willson and Janice finally got married in the place where they first met. The cafeteria of Occidental College in Los Angeles, California.

It all ended happily, the way it all started, that’s how fate plays with us. If you love someone, say it right away. If you know they love you back, don’t just let them go. Mention your loved ones in the comments and share this story with the one you want to be together with forever.