Gary Bowersox and Myrleen Runnion are getting married Thursday — exactly 38 years after they first married.

That marriage lasted only five months.

"It really never should have ended," said Runnion, now 63.

They met on a flight to Tokyo in 1962. Bowersox had recently graduated from Western Michigan University and was starting a solo 'round-the-world trip. Runnion was globetrotting with her parents.

They immediately hit it off.

"I was very impressed," said 66-year-old Bowersox, smiling.

Amazingly, they ran into each other in a few countries — Taiwan, Hong Kong, Italy — during their months-long journeys. But Runnion's protective father kept the two from going on a date alone.

When they both returned to the States — Runnion to Northern California and Bowersox to Michigan — they stayed in touch, mostly through Christmas cards.

A few years later, in 1966, Bowersox, who had joined the U.S. Army, got orders to move to Hawai'i.

That December, he sent Runnion's parents a Christmas card. They responded, inviting him to their home the following January.

Bowersox quickly took them up on the offer, hoping to see their eldest daughter again.

"Once I saw him in that uniform, I knew I was dead meat," said Runnion, who picked up Bowersox from the airport. "His eyes got to me to begin with. I could look into his soul."

The visit turned into a long-distance relationship. Bowersox flew to California as often as he could to see her. They talked on the phone so often and for so long, they even racked up $800 phone bills.

On New Year's Eve in 1967, a little less than a year after meeting again, Bowersox proposed at a cocktail party in Alameda, Calif.

They were married on July 27, 1968, at Fort Mason in San Francisco.

Runnion moved to O'ahu with Bowersox after their honeymoon in Japan.

But after five months, Runnion felt like the marriage wasn't working out. Her husband was working 50-hour weeks, going to graduate school and playing basketball in the U.S. Army league. They didn't spent much time together.

"We never had a cross word," Runnion said, "but I never saw him, either."

On the way home from visiting her parents in California, Runnion slipped a note in Bowersox's pocket.

It said goodbye.

"I thought everything was going fine," Bowersox said. "I thought life was wonderful."

Bowersox got on the plane and returned to Hawai'i. Runnion stayed in San Francisco.

Both devastated, they had their marriage annulled and didn't see each other again until 1985.

By then Runnion was married to a lawyer and working as his legal assistant. Bowersox, who had remained on O'ahu, was divorced with a daughter and gaining notice as a gemologist. (He's now better known Gem Hunter.)

That year they met for dinner on Maui.

He realized he still loved her, but "I couldn't do anything about it," he said. "Life's life."

The next year Runnion's husband died from a stroke. A few years later, she packed up and moved to Tennessee to work in antiques. Over the next few years, Bowersox attempted to find her, but to no avail.

Runnion, too, thought often about her first husband. She once called every Bowersox in the phone book, hoping to reach him.

"The Lord kept us going," Runnion said. "We kept passing each other. It just wasn't the right time."

Then last summer, Bowersox got an e-mail from Runnion's sister-in-law saying his first wife was looking for him.

He quickly replied, sending Runnion his contact information in Michigan, where he would be staying.

On Aug. 30, 2005, they connected on the phone.

"It was as though we were never apart," Runnion said.

The next month, Bowersox visited her in Tennessee en route to a gem show. They stayed up all night talking.

After traveling together to a few events, Bowersox invited Runnion to stay with him on O'ahu.

The day after she arrived in Honolulu in April, the couple went to Three Tables on the North Shore, where they used to catch fish for their saltwater tank more than 30 years earlier.

As they walked on the rocks, Bowersox spun Runnion around and proposed. Through tears, she said yes.

"I ran once and I settled once," Runnion said. "And I'll never do either again."

The couple will wed exactly 38 years after they first exchanged vows, this time at the Sheraton Moana Surfrider.

Runnion, who's figuring out how to get her belongings to Hawai'i from Tennessee, still has memories from her past relationship with Bowersox: the gold pendant he gave her on their wedding day, the diamond from the engagement ring and their wedding photos.

This time around, she said, the marriage will be different.

For starters, if something's wrong, they'll talk about it instead of leaving notes in jacket pockets.

"Communication is going to constantly be open," Runnion said. "I feel like I bring to the table the tenaciousness of knowing what makes a good relationship and wanting to build the relationship we should've had back then."

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.