Judy Long and Jim Scott understand the nature of winning streaks.

Take their beloved Auburn University football team: On Dec. 1, the Tigers had won five in a row and were ranked No. 2 in the College Football Playoff rankings. But a month later, Ms. Long and Mr. Scott watched its two fiercest rivals, Georgia and Alabama, advance to the national championship game, while Auburn finished its season by losing in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl to unbeaten University of Central Florida.

Ms. Long and Mr. Scott know something about the longevity of streaks. Both spent more than 50 years in the glow of what they describe as near-perfect marriages, then were brought low by the deaths of their spouses. But love, as Ms. Long, 83, and Mr. Scott, 80, learned late in life, has a way of winning.

“This was not supposed to happen,” said Mr. Scott of his relationship with Ms. Long, which turned romantic in 2015 after decades of friendship. “I never intended it to happen, and Judy never intended it to happen. But together we have 105 years’ worth of experience being married. So we like to tell people we’re pretty sure we know what we’re doing.”