Captivating Couples 2015
Phoenix, AZ
Gwen, 43, dental hygienist
Ronda, 47, corporate travel agent
"Seriously, our biggest challenge has been our timing," say Gwen and Ronda. "We have always known that we were meant for each other, but circumstances seemed to always keep us from having a relationship." They first met 17 years ago in Alaska, but were both with other people. Then they had a period when they were free, but didn´t want to mess up their friendship. "As the years went by, one of us was ready to commit and the other wasn´t, and it went back and forth like that for years… Thankfully, fate stepped in–we were reunited three years ago, and haven´t spent a moment (besides work) apart ever since," says Gwen. The thing that once kept them apart, their friendship, is now the thing that binds them together. And fate seems to be in their corner this time. Not only was same-sex marriage recently made legal in Arizona, but they also just won a contest to get a free dream wedding, courtesy of the Hotel Palomar in Phoenix! "I used to have a lot of regret about [the years spent apart]," says Gwen, "wishing we would have just been together from day one, but now, as I look back, it was so important for us to have our own life experiences first, so we could be ready to totally commit to the one."
All you need is love!
ISA & NANETTE
East Village, NYC and Sag Harbor, NY
Isa, 61, theater critic/voice-over actor
Nanette, 67, psychotherapist
Here´s an unusual couple, who, having stood the test of time, have built a wonderful life together. "We met in 1984 at a party," say Nanette and Isa. Nanette was in deep conversation with a poet, and they were ignoring all others. The two got another chance almost a year later, while attending a party thrown by a lesbian dominatrix. Afterwards, Isa carried Nanette´s Sunday Times for her as she walked her home. "It felt like junior high," says Nanette. After "27 years of blissfully living in sin" the couple married when it became legal in New York. "It was primarily because we wanted to be counted, and we wanted the advantages that a legal marriage brings. The formality was just that—it did not hold much sentimentally for us. The big romantic event really came when we became domestic partners 17 years earlier." They find unique ways to keep their relationship sexy, like the time Nanette asked Isa out for dinner, but instead drove her to a motel where champagne, pate, and cheap lingerie were waiting. Another time, Isa suggesting a nature walk, lured Nanette into a "quickie" by a brook. Still, they realize life can´t always be spontaneous, or hold such surprises, and that´s all right because day-to-day life can be pretty fantastic as well. "It´s comforting to know that your honey is beside you and that you can trust her to care for you in every way." So there is an upside to familiarity!
