50 Years After Her Dad Called Off Her Wedding, She Found Hope In Her Mom’s Purse

50 years after her dad called off her wedding, she found hope in her mom's purse. Janice Rood and Prentiss Wilson's love story seemed like a fairy tale from the start. The pair met back in the 1960s while both were attending Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. When they first locked eyes on campus, it was like love at first sight, like something out of a romance novel. Rood and Wilson quickly fell in love and in the blink of an eye became engaged and started planning their wedding. It seemed like these two would receive the happily ever after ending they'd always dreamed of. However, before they could wed, tragedy struck and split the couple apart. For decades, the two didn't talk. Then, nearly 50 years later, Janice Rood found something in her mother's wallet that gave her hope that their paths could cross once again. Janice Rood grew up in a hardworking family in the wild west of Reno, Nevada. She recalls her father as a particularly tough guy with plenty of street smarts. That didn't make him a bad father, though. While he didn't always comprehend Rood's intellectual pursuits, he did the best he could to support his daughter in her desire to receive a proper education. He also taught her a valuable lesson. All good things in life require hard work. So, after graduating high school in the 1960s, Rood enrolled in Occidental College. There, she would work towards a bachelor's degree in biology. However, while signing up for science classes, Rood had no idea she'd end up meeting the love of her life. And that was only the first step of her incredible journey. During her time in college, Rood worked at the school's cafeteria to help her father pay for the education. One day, while on a shift in 1962, the young man shown here came in to eat. Before long, the two of them locked eyes and felt an instant connection. However, both Rood and the boy were so innocent and reserved that they couldn't even look at each other too long before blushing. While Rood had no idea who the young man was, she felt immediately drawn to him, as though fate brought the two of them together. While Rood didn't know it yet, her life would soon change drastically. The young man Rood had spotted at the cafeteria was Prentice Wilson. Although they didn't know it, the two could not have been more different. Unlike Rood, Wilson came from an upstart family. Also, Wilson's parents had pushed him hard to get into college, while Rood's had always given her the option to simply join the labor force. When the two met in the cafeteria, Wilson was studying law and had recently become the president of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma. Seen above, Wilson is seated on the left. For the young man, everything seemed to be going according to plan. Until he saw Janice Rood in the cafeteria, that is. After their first nonverbal meeting, Wilson started returning to the cafeteria repeatedly. Eventually, he realized that she often arrived early, mostly working morning shifts. Before too long, Wilson had also started to wake up early, becoming one of the first people in the cafeteria every single day. While he did genuinely enjoy the cafeteria's coffee, he mostly did it so he could see Rood. Of course, Rood could not help but notice the young man, who seemed infatuated with her. After all, she liked him as well. As Rood worked, she could not help but cross eyes with the object of her affection. For them, it was love at first sight. Eventually, the two lovebirds began talking to each other. As the days went on, so did Rood and Wilson's budding relationship. Soon enough, the two of them started making small talk. Slowly, hellos progressed into little chats at the register. While they hadn't done anything more than speak for a few minutes, Wilson knew Rood was the one for him, from the very beginning. I believe we were simply meant to be. I even remember the first time I laid eyes on Janice," Wilson said. As you might imagine, they both began to really cherish those short encounters in the cafeteria. In fact, so much so that if Wilson didn't show up one day, Rood would worry something might be wrong with him. While it was clear that the pair felt attracted to one another, Wilson still believed that there wasn't a chance that Rood would want to become more than friends. I actually didn't think I had a chance with her. She was a year ahead of me and just so beautiful," he recalled. However, what Wilson didn't know at the time was that Rood was also falling for him. When he started showing up, Rood began to look forward to going to work every morning, hoping to exchange a few sentences with the boy she liked. However, it seemed like neither one of them could gather up the courage to ask for the other's name. Three and a half weeks after they first laid eyes on each other, Wilson finally learned the name of his crush, Janice Rood. It was a name that Wilson would remember for the rest of his life. Of course, the same day, Rood learned his name, Prentice Wilson, a name that she had actually heard before. You see, Rood knew the name from Wilson's recent promotion to the president of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma. At the time, Wilson had even become something of a little celebrity on campus. However, while Rood knew Every single year in the week before Thanksgiving, Occidental College holds a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for all its students. Not only does it give students a chance to celebrate with their classmates, but it allows them to say lengthy goodbyes to their friends before returning home for the holiday break. In 1962, Janice Rood could not wait to attend a Thanksgiving dinner. After all, she knew that her favorite person would be there, undoubtedly waiting in her line at the cafeteria. Maybe Wilson would even ask to sit and eat with her during her break. Soon enough, Rood started her shift, excited as usual. However, something completely unexpected happened. You see, Wilson never showed up. Rood had daydreamed about her and Wilson spending time together at the Thanksgiving dinner. So, when Rood realized that Wilson wouldn't come to the dinner, she felt determined to find out why. So, on her break, she found one of Wilson's friends that she'd seen him with. The friend told her that Wilson had already gone home early to spend more time with his family. However, nothing would stop Rood from seeing Wilson before she returned home for holiday break. So, in an incredibly brave and out-of-character move for her, Rood asked for Wilson's home address. When the friend gave it to her, she rushed off. Without giving it too much thought, Janice Rood rushed into her car and set out to see Believe it or not, the young man did not even care that Wilson lived some 160 miles away from Occidental College. In the town of Santa Maria, nothing would stand in her way. For Rood, the distance wasn't a factor, not for what she felt for sure was love. The trip took Rood three long hours, but she found ways to entertain herself. For most of the ride, she hummed along to the radio while daydreaming about how her meeting with Wilson would go. However, despite her preparation, as she started walking towards his door, Rood felt frozen with fear. Realizing that Wilson might find her antics completely crazy, Rood froze on Wilson's doorstep. In a lightbulb moment, she understood that she could be labeled as the girl that drove for hours to talk to a boy she never shared more than a few sentences with. Suddenly, dozens of questions poured into her mind. What about his family? His friends? Even worse, what if he wasn't home, or what if he already had a girlfriend? Despite her pounding heart, Rood took the plunge and knocked on Wilson's door. She braced for heartbreak as the door opened, but then her heart skipped a beat. On the other side of the door was none other than her crush, Prentice Wilson. Of course, Wilson felt stunned to see his own crush standing on his front porch. To Rood's surprise, Wilson felt incredibly excited to see his cafeteria crush show up his front door. In fact, just as Rood had knocked on his front door, Wilson had been sitting down to enjoy one of his favorite books and thinking about how much he would miss their morning meetups in the cafeteria. What are the chances? Much to Janice Rood's delight, Wilson and his family warmly welcomed her into their household with open arms. Not only that, but they even invited her to join the family for their Thanksgiving dinner. It seemed like everything was going exactly according to plan. Unfortunately, things would not always go as smoothly as they did that evening. At dinner, the entire Wilson family immediately connected with Rood. In fact, Wilson even said that his mother was taken with her the instant they met, just as he had been. Meanwhile, Rood felt a wave of relief that her bold move didn't end up a total disaster. On the contrary, it seemed that she made the right choice by showing up unannounced. As you might imagine, that fateful dinner was a turning point in Rood and Wilson's relationship. However, they didn't quite know it yet. After a lovely dinner, Rood said goodbye and headed back to campus. Wilson returned after Thanksgiving break. That's the moment when everything truly changed. As soon as Wilson and Rood returned to campus from Thanksgiving break, everything about the nature of their relationship had changed. No longer did the pair constrain themselves to a few sentences of chit-chat at the cafeteria register. Now, a romantic relationship had started to blossom. Before long, Prentice Wilson and Janice Rood became inseparable, making up for lost time. Soon enough, all of their friends thought of the two as a couple of peas in a pod. Everyone felt sure that Rood and Wilson would stay together forever. It seemed as though nothing could get between them. And then, before long, Wilson proved how much he loved Rood. Prentice Wilson felt convinced that he and Rood were meant to be together. So, just months after the two started dating, he boldly got down on one knee and asked Janice Rood to be his wife. While some of his friends could not believe Wilson would ask someone to marry him after just a few months, but he knew it was the right thing to do. It had taken the lovely couple weeks of meetings in the cafeteria before the two even uttered a simple hello to one another. Now, Wilson was done with waiting. Of course, Rood said yes to the engagement. Little did they know their happiness would soon crumble before their eyes. As any recently engaged young woman would, Rood quickly called her family. That's when everything came crashing down. Her father couldn't believe that she intended to marry so young, especially not while she was at college. So, Rood's father did everything he could to prevent this marriage from happening. Horribly, Rood's father gave his daughter an impossible ultimatum. Break up with Prentice Wilson or otherwise he'd stop paying her college tuition. In a matter of seconds, Rood's life was crumbling right down before her eyes. With her job at the cafeteria, she made less than a fifth of what she would need to pay for college. Now, Rood found herself forced to choose between earning an education or the man she loved. Janice Rood felt utterly stunned by her father's decision to intervene in her relationship with Prentice Wilson. To make matters even worse, the couple's engagement had already been announced in the local newspaper. Ironically, the announcement ended with the words, no date has been set for the wedding. Initially, that had simply been the truth. Now, however, Rood looked at the words with a different meaning. They sounded like an ominous warning she had missed. On the one hand, Rood knew that she wouldn't be able to complete her studies without her father's help. On the other hand, she really wanted to spend the rest of her life with Wilson. What could she possibly do? Both Wilson and Rood felt heartbroken over the fact that they needed to make such a life-changing, devastating decision. After all, Rood had worked her entire life to attend college. As such, her happiness was incredibly important to her, and she felt determined to get her degree. Now, it would cost her happiness as well. To make matters worse, Rood and Wilson felt they had no one to turn to. While their friends sympathized, there was little they could do to help. Wilson's mother told them to elope, but they felt that was too wrong to consider. Unbeknownst to them, though, Rood's mother had started working on a plan to help the young couple. See, she didn't agree with her husband's decision to try and break up her daughter and Wilson. Without telling her husband, and in order to help her daughter, Rood's mother took out a second mortgage on her house. She had hoped that the money would be enough to pay for the rest of her daughter's tuition. That way, her daughter could go to school and still marry Wilson, whom she clearly loved. Unfortunately, it still wasn't enough. Now, there was no way out. Rood needed to make the difficult decision of abandoning her dream degree and staying with the ones she loved, or simply breaking up with Wilson. Believe it or not, Rood chose the latter. Sadly, she broke off the engagement, ended her relationship with Wilson, and focused on her degree. My father forced us apart, and following January, by refusing to pay my tuition if I didn't stop seeing that boy. Rood lamented later. After breaking up with Wilson, Rood went on to complete her degree in biology at Occidental College. However, she never forgot about Wilson. Prentice and I should have taken his mother's advice at the time, which was to elope. But I became fearful that Prentice would be attracted to smarter women if I didn't get a college degree. He didn't understand my angst, and so we went our separate ways, she continued. The two mostly ignored each other for the rest of college, as the pain was too great. Before long, the two graduated and left Occidental, thinking they would never see one another again. After the college, both Janice Rood and Prentice Wilson enjoyed happy, fulfilling lives. After he graduated from Occidental College, Wilson went east to Harvard Law School, becoming a tax attorney. Eventually, he came back to California, to the Bay Area, where he became a successful and well-respected lawyer. Meanwhile, after Rood completed her degree in biology, she decided to return home to run the family business. You see, Rood's family ran a very successful diving board company. In fact, it was so successful that she was inducted into the USA Diving Association Hall of Fame in Seattle. While they both did well for themselves, Rood and Wilson never forgot about each other. As the years went on, both Rood and Wilson found and married other people. Occasionally, the two did cross paths at Occidental College alumni events. However, when they did run into each other, they simply acted as friends since they were both married. In fact, their whirlwind engagement seemed like a strange dream from the past. Before either of them realized it, almost 50 long years had passed since their relationship. By this point, both Rood and Wilson were both divorced. However, it wasn't until tragedy struck that the two thought about one another. You see, both their mothers passed away within months of All of a sudden, they had things in common once again. Then, Rood found something incredible in her mom's purse. After her mother passed away, Rood needed to go through her things. While looking through her mom's purse, Rood found something incredible, the announcement of her engagement to Wilson, from all those years ago. Her mother even laminated it. Believe it or not, Wilson also found a copy while going through his mother's The mothers got it. The mothers simply knew. And I think we also knew, Rood said later. With each other on their mind, Rood and Wilson separately decided to reach out to one another. Maybe this was their chance to pick up their relationship right where they had left it. After so many years and tears, Wilson and Rood finally reached out to one another. It was actually Wilson who contacted Rood first, just hours before she'd planned on emailing him. Just like before, the two of them started talking timidly at first, before quickly moving on to talking all the time, telling each other the stories of their lives. Before long, Wilson worked up the courage to ask Rood on another date. This time around, he wouldn't wait until she literally showed up on his doorstep. He asked her to meet him at a restaurant called Cliff House in San Francisco. Nervous but excited, Rood agreed. And the two of them planned their first date together in nearly 50 years. Finally, on June 20, 2010, Prentice Wilson and Janice Rood went on their first date in nearly five decades. As the two of them drove to Cliff House in San Francisco, one question rang in both of their minds. Would the spark still be there? However, after Rood and Wilson saw each other again, they realized that was a stupid question. The spark was there, as strong as ever, even after spending 47 years apart from one another. That night, the couple basically picked up right where they left off, and started dating once again. And just like the last time, Prentice Wilson and Janice Rood became engaged once again, just months after they started dating. As the couple learned from never setting a wedding date the first time around, Wilson and Rood quickly set a date this time. And with no parents to intervene, the wedding went off without a hitch. On August 19, 2012, Prentice Wilson and Janice Rood finally exchanged their wedding vows, in a beautiful ceremony on the Occidental College campus, surrounded by fellow alumni. We lament every day that we missed being together," Rood said in an interview with the Occidental College magazine. That's about 17,500 days. But who's counting? After all, there's nothing like the longing of a half-century to make a couple genuinely appreciate every moment they have together.