EL DORADO HILLS -- Pegi Scarlett's love story started almost 40 years ago when she met her husband John, who she called a "gentle giant."
"I just wish my daughters would be so lucky to find somebody like him," Pegi said.
Before they started their life together, John was an Army captain, deployed to Vietnam in 1969.
Months later he was in a deadly helicopter crash.
"His helicopter was blown up on landing by a command detonated mine. Many didn't survive," Pegi said.
It was a brush with death, but it didn't kill him.