How did you guys meet?
Willie: "Wow, I guess uh '93. She was on a lunch break, and I was at work. I saw this beautiful woman on the phone and I couldn't stop staring at her so finally I got her attention and I walked over to her."
Charlene: "I saw him looking but I was trying to ignore him."
Willie: "Trying to be cool. I went over to talk to her when she was on the phone. We exchanged numbers, and the rest is history."
Charlene: "Well actually, what happened was we dated maybe three months after that and we separated. I always knew how to find Will. I moved, so he didn't know how to find me, but I knew how to find him. How many years later? Many years later I contacted him."
Willie: "Almost a decade if not a decade."
Charlene: "I contacted him, and pretty much since then we've been dating."
About the first date, what was it about Willie you found most attractive?
Charlene: "His smile. Willie has a beautiful smile."
What was it about Charlene that you found the most attractive?
Willie: "Her face, she's just so beautiful."
When you guys were reunited after so many years, what was that like? Did you just click?
Willie: "Yeah. It was like we just fell back into place. Like nothing was ever lost."
Charlene: "And we were friends at first. We didn't really want to jump into a relationship. Both of us were coming out of a relationship. So we pretty much just dated. We took it slow. It was natural."
At what point did you realize she was the one you wanted to marry?
Willie: "Wow. I thought that the first day I had seen her, but that I was way too young and too fast. I would say shortly after a few times we went out. I figured you know, I'm getting older (laughter). We clicked, she's very beautiful and we clicked on all levels. I knew she was the one for a long time actually."
At what point did you realize he might be the one?
Charlene: "Well, he has such a big heart. He was great with my children as if they were his own. He never considered them to be step children. He embraced all of us. He has a huge heart. He has two children, I have two children, we have one together. He loves us all. He wants to take care of the world."
When did you decide that you were going to pop the question? How did that come about?
Willie: "Honestly, it just came. I told her I would never propose to her on a special occasion, like a holiday or anything like that, which it ended up being Valentine's Day that just passed. I remember being at the jeweler's picking out the ring texting a friend of mine saying, 'I can't believe where I am and what I'm about to do'. It just came, it wasn't planned or anything. I was just like it's time for us to get married. Our original date was October until she entered us in this contest."
What were your feelings when he proposed? Was it shock?
Charlene: "No, I knew it was coming. It was time. The time was right and it was coming soon. With everything I went through with my radiation, my treatment, my cancer, I think he wanted to give me a moment to settle in to get back to my regular everyday life. I was shopping and I didn't expect it. He always said, 'never a holiday, never a birthday because you look for things on those days'. He tricked me. He gave me a little box of candy, and I said, 'what are you doing with that?' There were flowers, and the boys were filming it. I asked 'why are you filming this, it's Valentine's Day?' Then he got on one knee and he did a really nice proposal. He told me he waited too long and the time was right, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me."
At what point in the relationship did you find out that you had cancer?
Charlene: "Actually, I found out on Will's birthday of last year."
Sometimes treatment is hard on relationships. How did you get through that?
Charlene: "He was my rock."
Willie: "Yeah."
Charlene: "He was so so so good. He never ever complained. I had to go every day. Five days a week, for thirty-six treatments. He worked nights. He would come in and I would have to be at the treatment center at 8:00 every morning. He would get up no problem. He would take me on time everyday."
What's the prognosis look like now?
Charlene: "I'm cancer free. Thank God! I'm completely cancer free. It was overwhelming for me. If it affected Will, I'm sure it did in some type of way, but he never let me see that. He encouraged me everyday. 'You're fine, you're going to beat this. This is not going to kill you. Girl you're going to be here forever!' Even when I was so down on myself, I couldn't believe it. Everything happened so fast, it was a lot to take in."
At what point did you feel like, "Okay, we're going to get married?" After you got engaged, were you planning the wedding right away?
Charlene: "Yes! I wanted something small. Will wanted a wedding. I really wanted something small because of the children. We were kind of butting heads with that. We went to look at a few catering halls and we were going to try and compromise. We said we would meet half way, and then I entered the contest."
And how did you find the contest?
Charlene: "Watching the Young and the Restless!"
Willie: (Laughs)
Charlene: "They were advertising and I wrote it down. At 11:00 at night my son and I watched it, and he said, 'Mommy are you going to do that?' I said, 'why not, it doesn't hurt you know'. I got up and I went and I logged on, I sent a picture. I really didn't think much more of it. You know, it's a contest? How many people really want to enter? They're not going to think about me, and then when I got back home in April, I was shocked. Everybody at my job, all my friends at work, they all knew and I told them I just made it, and we took it from there."
When you made it to the semi-finals, and the videos were up, what kind of feedback did you get from people?
Charlene: 'Everybody at work was like, 'oh my gosh', and it went from floor to floor to floor to floor. And everybody was announcing, Charlene made it to the finals. I mentioned it, but when I made it to the final four and we had to get votes now, and we had it going."
Charlene, what was it like when you got the phone call that you won?
Charlene: "I was at work again. I found everything out at work. Every time I got the phone calls I was at work. Will takes me to work everyday. He said, 'call me if you hear from anybody', and I said 'yeah...okay'. He asked me, 'are you gonna be upset if we don't win?' and I said 'yeah.' He said, 'don't be upset, don't be crying,' and I said, 'okay'. I was just sitting down, working, working, and my cell phone rang, so I answered it, it was a restricted number. He said, 'Hi Charlene, this is Greg from Sony,' and I said, 'hi Greg'. He said, 'well I guess you know why I'm calling', and I said, 'no...why?' He didn't sound too upbeat so I thought they were calling the losers too."
By the way you lost... (laughter)
Willie: "You didn't make it, sorry!"(laughter).
Charlene: "He said, 'I have great news, you and Willie won!' I started screaming! The whole floor started screaming at this point. I'm running because I'm so overwhelmed. By this time I'm like, 'I'm so sorry, I must have screamed your ear off'. He said, 'I have to ask, are you still interested?' I said, 'Absolutely!' (Laughter). 'Of course I'm still interested. That was pretty much it.'"
Willie, what did you feel like when you found out?
Willie: "When she called me I thought she was playing. It took her a while to get in touch with me because I was so busy at work, and I didn't even know my phone was ringing. She left maybe four calls before I realized she called me. So her excitement was a little simmered down. Because I'm expecting the hysteria I heard the first time. When it sunk in I couldn't believe it either."
Charlene: "He didn't believe it."
Willie: "I didn't believe it either. I kept saying, 'stop playing, stop playing'. I finally said, 'this is for real huh?'"
So now that you guys are here in Vegas, how has it been so far?
Charlene: "It's great. It's great. We did a lot of walking yesterday. This is overwhelming. This is nothing like I thought. I got the itinerary, and I keep trying to wake up."
Willie: "We're here and we're living it."
Charlene: "I can't believe it. I have to keep reminding myself this is real."
You have family and friends here. How did you decide how many people you were going to bring?
Charlene: "It was first important that first the kids were here. There's one upstairs sleeping. We have more guests coming, and of course we have two boys. One son is upstairs sleeping, one daughter. My niece Ashley, my big sister Kim, I have four sisters. They take great care of me."
Willie: "Everyone couldn't make it, but we have a great cast of supporters here."
It seems like it's going to be a small wedding like you kind of wanted, but yet not because we have all this press here.
Willie: "Right, right."
And you don't mind sharing that with the public?
Willie: "No. We want to show the world."
Charlene: "When I used to date Will, I used to get to so excited just to be with Will. One day I told him, we were in the park, 'I want to stand up and yell out the window, I love this man!' I wanted everybody to know about it."
Thank you so much. Read Charlene's Thoughts
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NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Open only to permanent, legal U.S. residents who are couples (2 persons) in a committed relationship, who are 21 or older as of time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sony Pictures Television Inc. and CBS Corporation are ineligible to enter this contest. Contest runs from March 9, 2009, to May 31, 2009. Contest entries must be received by April 13, 2009. Grand Prize winning couple must be available to travel to Las Vegas for five consecutive days between July 8, 2009 and July 20, 2009 or Grand Prize status will be forfeited (actual dates of travel subject to change at Sponsor’s sole discretion). Prize and Entry restrictions apply. Official rules are available March 9, 2009. To enter, and for full Contest rules and Judging criteria details, see the Contest Official Rules. *Note: Semi-finalists are subject to verification of eligibility.