AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Fay and Bob Wenrich have lived many lives together. They grew up neighbors in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. They got married, had four kids and stayed together more than two decades until their divorce in 1975. This past Sunday, though, Fay and Bob, after 49 years apart, retied the knot.
(SOUNDBITE OF ETTA JAMES SONG, "AT LAST")
FAY WENRICH: He said he didn't want to lose me the first time, and he was - he didn't think he'd ever get me back and now he's going to keep me.
(LAUGHTER)
BOB WENRICH: Yeah.
F WENRICH: He's 94, and I'm 89. But we're having a good time. We're having a lot of fun. And for two old people, I think we're pretty lucky.
RASCOE: It was a love story neither partner saw coming.
F WENRICH: I was married for 42 years to someone else. He was married for 24 years to someone. They both passed, and we've just been bumping into each other at all the functions for the children and grandchildren.
RASCOE: When they both found themselves widowed in the last few years, Fay and Bob found in each other a support system.
B WENRICH: She got very sick, and I was helping to get her back to her health again. So I would take her to places and make sure she was feeling OK.
F WENRICH: He pays a lot of attention to me. That's for sure.
RASCOE: They started playing cards, spending more time together. And in June, Fay and Bob started taking trips to the nearby casino.
F WENRICH: We started going away more with each other. And I told him, I said, we're just friends, and that's the way we're going to keep it. And then we were down at the casino, and he put his hand on my knee. And I said, Robert, I told you, we're going to just be friends. And he said, but you have such a nice knee (laughter). So then we just started doing more stuff together.
B WENRICH: Well, I just thought it was about time, and things were going pretty fast here, so we did decide to get married.
RASCOE: Fay and Bob's youngest daughter, Carol Smith, heard the news from her mom.
CAROL SMITH: She called me at lunch, and she said, I'm not sure I'm going to change my last name, and that was November 11. I said, what are you talking about? Are you getting married? And she said, yeah, I think we are (laughter). And that was that. The wedding got planned in three weeks (laughter).
F WENRICH: We wanted to keep it low-key, but that was out of the question.
RASCOE: So at a local venue last Sunday, the happy couple walked down the aisle, said I do and shared their second first dance.
B WENRICH: Floyd Cramer - the "Last Date" was of the name of the song.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLOYD CRAMER'S "LAST DATE")
B WENRICH: It was very nice and we were doing well, I thought. And then people started to dance along with us.
SMITH: There were 82 people there. We had a photographer. We had a DJ. We had it catered. There were 14 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. So five generations at the wedding, which is just totally awesome.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLOYD CRAMER'S "LAST DATE")
SMITH: I was 15 when they divorced. I never thought I'd be planning their wedding at 64, you know? It's just amazing.
RASCOE: Fay and Bob Wenrich, hoping to prove the second time's the charm.
F WENRICH: I think we need each other now, and I hope we have some good years ahead of us.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLOYD CRAMER'S "LAST DATE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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