According to People, the Greens both went to Scottville High School, though they didn’t know each other. They followed their own paths after graduating — Allen went on to get married and later divorced, while Audrey went on to travel, grow her career and spend time with her nieces and nephews. The married couple’s love story starts years later, when Allen, who remembered Audrey as a “beautiful” and “good” person, randomly called her up and asked her out.

“I said, ‘Let me take this chance,'” Allen, who’s a blackjack dealer at Harrah’s in New Orleans, said, according to People.

Allen remembers her giving him “such a rough time,” and she turned him down. But, much to Allen’s glee, the pair bumped into each other at an alumni event for their high school a year and a half later in 1997.

“When I saw him, I said, ‘Oh my God. Here he comes,'” Audrey said of their meeting, according to People. “If he didn’t speak to me, it would only be [us] and God that knew that he had ever tried to call me. That’s when he approached me and said, ‘Ms. Parker, I’m not letting you get away from me this easy this time.'”

Allen said he “romanced her on the phone,” calling Audrey regularly.

They spent the next two decades dating, though their relationship wasn’t without its hardships. Audrey was diagnosed with cancer twice. According to Today, she was afraid of losing Allen, but gave him an out if he felt like he couldn’t handle her illness.

“I told him that if he couldn’t handle it, I would understand and not hold it against him if he felt he needed to leave,” she said.

But Allen refused. He pledged to be there for Audrey and kept his promise.

“He was there with me when I was going through some tough times,” Audrey said, People reports. “When one person is sick, and another person is healthy, that’s hard on both parties.”

According to Today, a few years after Audrey was free of colon cancer, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had 18 lymph nodes removed, underwent extensive chemotherapy and radiation. The intense treatments led her to move in with her younger sister. Allen continued to stay by her side, and he even washed her when she couldn’t.

“I could not bathe myself for a period of time,” Audrey told Today. “You had to bathe me because I had tubes all over. And then I couldn’t lay in the bed. I had to sit up in a chair.”

Audrey’s health put the idea of a wedding on the back burner. But when she told her longtime love to “wow” her before her birthday in 2021, he figured it was time to pop the question.

On March 27, 2021, on Audrey’s 73rd birthday, Allen got on one knee and asked her to marry him.

“There was screaming and hollering,” Allen said. “I said, ‘Now, would you accept me to be your husband?'”

She was overjoyed and said yes.

Having waited decades to tie the knot, Audrey pulled out all the stops for her and Allen’s special day. She had multiple bridal showers and made sure she had a “regular wedding like a 20- or 30-year-old person.”

“I was not cheated for anything,” she told People.

Looking back, Audrey is glad she took her time to settle down.

As a single woman, Audrey said she “got to learn to love me for me.”

“We just want to be voices for the people in their 60s, 70s,” Allen said. “Just go for it, because you don’t have to live alone in the last part of our years.”