After his second divorce, Patrick Godfrey sat with his mother looking at old family photos.

“I came across this picture of Margery and I from high school and I said to my mom, ‘I don’t know why I had to have these other marriages, why couldn’t I have married Margery in the first place, had a normal marriage, children and life?’” Patrick Godfrey, 72, recalled of a moment more than 30 years ago. “I didn’t understand why I had to do all this other stuff.”

But he had an “overwhelming sense” he could have it that way and began to look up Margery’s maiden name, Southworth, in the phonebook, however, he had no luck with the 15-20 he found.

“My mom thought I should probably go back to the hospital since I was barely divorced and shouldn’t be looking to create a relationship,” he said.

Then in his mid-30s, the California native had been married twice, had a daughter with his first wife, a son with his second and had just got custody of his stepson.

He was also battling alcoholism.

“I figured I’d just raise the boys,” he said. “That was my principle objective.”

The couple had dated in high school but had gone their separate ways — Patrick Godfrey had been back and forth from Hawaii working as a Tahitian musician and assistant director to the Hawaii Medical Association and his sweetheart had graduated college, worked at Schick Razor Company and the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation.

So it was quite the surprise when he encountered the love of his life at a San Diego freeway on-ramp at 7:30 a.m. the next day after his conversation with his mother.

“I stopped and a tan van pulled up alongside me and honked its horn,” he said. “I looked over and there was a woman in a van and she had on big dark glasses. She lifted up her glasses and it was Margery.”

Patrick Godfrey was flabbergasted.

“I put my head down on the steering wheel and I started to laugh and then I started to cry,” he said.

He had gone a different route 20 miles out of his commute from Palos Verdes to Hollywood that day.

“I had this very strong feeling to go by way of Santa Monica,” he said. “I was going to go to Santa Monica and cut back over to Hollywood.”

And it was that choice that put the pair together.

“It was just the coming together of the stars in the right galaxy,” Margery Godfrey said. “I saw him, he has a very distinctive profile, and I knew that it was Pat Godfrey.”

She had been working, dating and enjoying the single life of a woman living near Manhattan Beach in the 1970s.

“I had a lot of fun but I had not been involved with anybody seriously and I was excited to see Pat,” she said.

The two pulled off of the freeway into a nearby parking lot and asked what each other had been up to, if they were seeing anyone and within a week, Patrick Godfrey asked her out on a date.

“I mean, he was of course very handsome, successful and fun,” she said, noting she had no idea they would rekindle their relationship when she saw him on the freeway. “One of the main things about Patrick besides his intelligence is his wit. He’s very witty, funny and quick, and cute, and kind.”

This wasn’t the couple’s first date and it wouldn’t be their last. About one year later in 1979 they were married at LaVinta Inn, a Spanish Inn above their grade school and, soon after, bought their house in the Twin Lakes area of Federal Way after a job opportunity opened for Patrick Godfrey.

The two first met at a seventh grade dance when Patrick Godfrey was the new kid on the block.

He remembers it distinctly.

“I was standing with a fellow that I had met and I looked out onto the dance floor and I saw this young hottie in a pair of tight white pants and a big smile on her face just dancing to the beat of the band,” he said.

His friend introduced the two and she “bounced over, smiled and sparkled, and stole my heart and went back to dancing,” he recalls.

They started seriously dating off and on in 10th grade until high school ended. She was a cheerleader and he was on the basketball team.

“On a couple of occasions she’d say we’re getting too serious, we need to date other people so we would date other people for a little bit but then we would come back together again,” he said.

Patrick Godfrey said she’s the only woman who’s ever made him laugh, the only woman he’s ever loved and he always compared the other woman he dated to her.

“I mean she stole my heart in the seventh grade. What do you do about that?” he asked. “When you’re doomed, you’re doomed.”

The Godfrey’s love story became national news in 1997 after USA Today featured a book called “True Love” by Robert Fulghum, a Seattle author. The Godfrey’s love story was one of many in the 261-page book that would become a New York Times best seller.

What attracted them to share their story was that the book’s proceeds (about $500,000) went to Habitat for Humanity, and keeping in mind that it would raise money, the two shared their story with magazines, local broadcast stations and eventually Oprah.

“I told Margery that we’re going to be on the Oprah Winfrey show and she was in sales at the time and said, ‘yeah, sure,’ but a-year-and-a-half later one of the producers from the show called.”

The Oprah Winfrey show picked up footage from a previous show they did with Richard Thomas called “It’s a Miracle,” and a film crew came out to interview them.

“It’s inspired a lot of people, especially people who wonder about relationships and if they’re ever going to have Mr. Right or Ms. Right,” Patrick said.

The couple will celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary on Feb. 18 and they say their marriage has been “fabulous.”

The key to a happy marriage is “sincerity, communication and humor,” according to Margery Godfrey.

“I can’t imagine people not finding fun things about each other and laughing at things together,” she said. “And a positive attitude and willingness to be vulnerable.”

Patrick Godfrey believes acceptance and support are attributed to the success of his relationship.

“Margery and I have always been accepting and supportive of one another,” he said. “We do not try to change or fix each other. When she wanted to go on a safari to Africa with a girlfriend, she got, ‘Go for it.’ Last summer, she went to a painting class in Paris with a girlfriend. When I want to go salmon fishing in Alaska, she’s all for it.”

Patrick Godfrey said her support in his recovery as a three-time cancer survivor, health issues, political career and volunteer work has been a key ingredient to a successful relationship as well. The two retirees volunteer throughout Federal Way and have enjoyed living out their love story in the Northwest.

“God did for me what I was unable to do for myself,” he said. “It’s a gift.”

Patrick and Margery Godfrey in the early years of their marriage. The couple will celebrate their 36th anniversary this month. Contributed photo