After life’s twists and turns, couples wind up together in the end

While some couples are lucky to live the fairy tale of finding their first true love and having it last a lifetime, others are presented with obstacles that pull the couples closer together.

Two Centennial Hills couples were given a second chance with the love of their life, and they recognize the gift, living each day to the fullest with their partner.

Waiting for a second chance

Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Ross and his wife, Kelli , met at Twin Lakes Elementary School in the third grade.

Steve said he had a crush on Kelli the moment he met her.

For their first date, they went to an ice skating rink on East Sahara Avenue.

"My mother drove us," Steve joked. " My tennis shoes were stolen that day from the ice skating rink, and Kelli never wanted anything to do with me after that date ."

An inexperienced skater, Kelli fell on her bottom and cried, she added. Looking back, she remembered the date but did not remember it was with him.

When she moved to Lake Tahoe, she attended an elementary school that he, too, would attend.

"We were always kind of at the same places at different times because our parents were in the gaming business," she said.

They met up again in junior high school, and she described him as very popular with a lot of friends who would flirt with her by tossing her in a trash can.

She moved away again after their sophomore year. When he graduated from high school, he attended a semester at the University of Nevada, Reno, and later found out he was living in an apartment across the street from Kelli but they never saw each other.

"It just lined up," Steve said. "To me, it was the perfect love story that finally brought us together, and we had to go through other things in life to learn to be prepared for one another, I think."

Both found others to marry, making their merged family resemble the Brady Bunch, he said.

"She had some kids and I had some kids so we blended a wonderful family together," he said.

They have five children and 11 grandchildren, and even though they are empty nesters, they said their home is always buzzing with kids younger than age 5 .

When Steve was working at the Nevada Test Site, there was a place he would stop in the evenings, and she happened to be there celebrating her 28th birthday.

"I saw her and I told my friend who was with us, ' You know, I've had a crush on that girl since the third grade.' "

He did not think that she would recognize him as a construction worker.

"She tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'Steve Ross,' and from that moment, it was kind of over with for me," he said.

At the time, he was going through a challenging divorce and was not looking to date but said he felt a spiritual connection that told him she was the woman he needed to marry.

Before they met up again, she was used to doing everything on her own, she said. She was a marketing director in the gaming industry and was raising her children. Out of character that day, she went back to the table at the restaurant and told her sister, "That man is the man I'm going to marry."

Steve said the key to their happy marriage is making each other their priorities.

"In a relationship, one thing we have learned is you have to be best friends, and you have to make your spouse the priority in your life - not your job, not your toys, not your hobbies but your spouse, and that relationship will continue through time and eternity," he said.

As their children dealt with their previous divorces, too, he said it was important that they represent a healthy relationship for their children.

Kelli said when they first started dating, she was up front that she did not cook and clean and she worked for a living. He was fine with that, saying he could cook and clean , although later, she stopped working to look after the children and learned to cook not only for their children but also for the neighborhood children .

She remembered his proposal clearly.

"He was just acting kind of strange, and he kind of grabbed my hand and he was holding it and then he looks at me - and he's quite the cry baby - and he got all teary-eyed and he just told me something to the effect of, 'I've waited for you my whole, entire life, and I just want to make it official . Will you please marry me?" she said.

He had to convince her to get married, as she did not see a reason to do it again because she was so independent. He was firm that the best way to raise a family was to set an example with a strong marriage.

"He brought up the fact that, you know, we are examples to not only our children but to others around us, and when he put it that way, I'm such a firm believer in a strong foundation, that really, there was no saying no," she said.

They were married in 1994.

EMBRACING THE INEVITABLE

Shaunna Fisk and Scott Richardson got a second chance. They have known each other for 32 years and loved each other for much of it but have been together for only 5½ years. Both grew up in Las Vegas - Richardson graduated from Western High School and Fisk went to Valley High School.

"I always knew he was the love of my life and never let him go in my heart," Fisk said.

They met at Goldwater's Department Store at Fashion Show mall in 1981. She dressed the mannequins, and he worked in the men's section. They met at the grand opening staff party Feb. 18, 1981, when they found a quiet space to talk and ended up kissing. Their first date was at Richardson's parents' home, where he made them dinner. He prepared a large Caesar salad but used Cheez-Its instead of croutons because he ran out.

They dated for two years before life got in the way. He went to college in Los Angeles, and she moved to San Diego. The letters and calls grew less frequent, but in the late '90s, they reconnected online. Before there was Facebook or LinkedIn, there was classmates.com.

Richardson said he would have tried to stalk Fisk online, too, but was unsure what her last name was since she married. He was a bachelor the entire time but has a daughter. Fisk and Richardson's daughters are close in age and very supportive of their parents' relationship , she said.

Richardson said he regrets letting her go the first time.

"When you're young and you fall in love, you think it will be like this again," he said. "I kept meeting these girls and thinking, how come it couldn't be like that first one with Shaunna?"

He described their relationship as very easy and relaxed.

"When my dad died in 2008, I drove by his old house to see if I could catch a glimpse of him, and he was in the front yard," Fisk said. "I felt like I was a teenager again, speeding away so he wouldn't see me."

The emails and calls picked up, and the couple started talking regularly again in 2009. When they reunited, Richardson remembered their salad and surprised Fisk with the Cheez-It croutons again. Fisk moved back to Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2009, and they live in Richardson's childhood home that he bought from his parents - the same house where the couple had their first date .

Fisk's mother told her that she knew from the beginning that Richardson was the man for her daughter. Still, now that they have reconnected, they are in no rush to get married. Even though their children ask when the wedding will be, Richardson and Fisk said they are romantically committed to each other, and that is all that matters to them.

"It's the one that got away, and you get a second chance to get it right," Richardson said.

He said he gives credit to social networks for bringing them back together.

"Even though we have only been together physically for a total of 5½ years, we really have been together for 32," Fisk said. "Some people go through life thinking they have found their soul mate. We know that we have . We get a do-over - a life do-over that not many people get a chance to do."

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Laura Phelps at lphelps@viewnews.com or 702-477-3839.