30 Years Since Class Photo, Truth Is Uncovered

When Amy Giberson and Justin Pounders started dating, there was something special about the connection they had instantly struck. It was as if fate had brought these two together, who had already been through so much in their lives.

Amy just knew that Justin was the man of her dreams and who one day she would tie the knot with. But after Amy showed Justin a few pictures of her time spent at preschool, he couldn’t help but be surprised by what he saw.

Amy Giberson spent the early stages of her life in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was during her time at Good Ol’ Sunshine Preschool when there was a little boy in her class that she had a small crush on. She recalled playing building blocks with her little boy friend and spending lunch time eating together and playing tag in the schoolyard. Even though more than three decades have passed since Amy’s kindergarten romance, her teacher still remembers every detail.

Diane Twar, who at one point was both a teacher and the owner of Good Ol’ Sunshine Preschool, recalled toddler Amy’s brief romantic encounters with her preschool crush. In November 2015, Twar told People Magazine, “They had a blast with each other. It was a quiet, bashful romance. They liked each other from afar, it was a young love, like a sweet crush, you know? They insisted on sitting next to each other in our school picture.”

But the reality was, this was a relationship involving three year old children. Two innocent toddlers are purely looking for friends to play with. Nothing more, nothing less. It was unlikely that two friends so young would maintain such a connection. Ultimately, after completing kindergarten, Amy and her little boy friend went separate ways and she spent her entire school life without her preschool sweetheart. She moved to university, and completely forgot about him.

Despite blossoming into a beautiful young woman, Amy’s love life was far from perfect. She experienced a series of failed relationships. After being hurt by many men, her friends decided to intervene and provide her with words of advice. They told her to be careful about wearing her heart on her sleeve and to not go for broke every time she met a cute guy.

In November 2016, in an interview with Cosmopolitan, Amy commented how “people would tell me, ‘Don’t be so open, Amy. Don’t trust so easily.’ But if I stopped doing that, it wouldn’t be me. It’s just absolutely nuts that I was the tragically misguided girl who was always let down.” In between her failed relationships, Amy would naturally feel despondent and disheartened that she would never find the man of her dreams. It was a very frustrating time for her.

Despite spending a lot of time away at university, jobs and a series of relationships, Amy felt she needed a change in her life. After turning 32, she retuned to her hometown of St. Petersburg, to be closer to her family and school friends once again. Amy never lost hope that she’d find the one, and was ready to settle down. To help boost her chances, Amy signed up to an online dating website. Shortly after, her profile was liked by someone who lived close by: Justin Pounders.

Justin Pounders had also been dating online, but his reasons for signing up were much more heartbreaking. Justin had also recently returned to St. Petersburg, in light of personal tragedy. A few years beforehand, he was happily engaged to Adrianne Roberts. But in 2012, on the night before the couple planned on moving in together, she was tragically murdered. After having farewell drinks with her roommate, Adrianne was killed while she was walking home. Naturally, Justin was distraught and didn’t know where to turn to next.

It was a long two years. Justin had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions, trying to pick himself up from the untimely passing of his fiance, Adrianne. But eventually, Justin rose from the ashes of his tragic loss and finally felt ready to move on with his life. He packed his bags and like Amy, returned to his hometown of St. Petersburg. Not only did he want to be closer to family and childhood friends, he also wanted to find new love.

After signing up to the same online dating site, Justin stumbled across Amy’s profile and was completely awestruck by her beautiful face. It didn’t take long before the two liked each other and started talking. Justin said, “I saw her photo and for whatever reason was instantly drawn to her. She just had this great energy, you could tell. I can’t explain it, but I knew I had to get to know this girl.” Shortly after, Amy and Justin went on their first date.

On December 3, 2014, Amy and Justin went on their first date at a fancy restaurant. Amy told People how from their very first personal encounter, the pair had an instant connection. She said, “when we met up and we hugged, it was like I had known him my whole life.” They had such a good time, that the waiter noticed this and gave the pair a dessert place with the date marked on it. It would turn out to be a date that they would never forget.

Looking back on the monumental evening, Amy commented in an interview with Cosmopolitan, “not even halfway through dinner I found myself shivering because I was so excited. I remember telling myself, ‘I’m going to be having dinner with this man for the rest of my life.'” Amy just knew that her and Justin were destined for great things, and she began meeting up with Justin every day afterwards. They were convinced that it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Amy and Justin had been dating for two months, and their romance was in the full swing. It was at this point that Justin shared an interesting insight with his new girlfriend. Amy commented on how “Justin casually mentioned he always liked my name because his first crush was a girl named Amy in preschool. I joked and said, ‘Well it wasn’t me, so I don’t want to hear about this Amy.'” Naturally, Amy was slightly jealous.

Another month passed in the couple’s blossoming relationship. One day came when Amy noticed her new boyfriend touching a scar. It was on his forehead, and looked like the accident must have happened a while ago. She wondered how he got the scar. Justin explained how he had got the scar during his preschool days, after falling from the monkey bars one day and cutting his head. It was this revelation that triggered some form of shared realization between the couple.

The couple realized that they had in fact both attended the same preschool, Good ‘Ol Sunshine preschool, which Amy went to 30 years beforehand. Although knowing from the get-go that they had grown up in the same area, they had no idea that they had attended the same preschool. They had not kept in touch with anyone else from pre-school. So they wouldn’t have any reason to believe they had crossed paths at any point. Until now.

Astounded by the revelation, the couple jumped on the opportunity to uncover whether or not their paths had crossed during their preschool years. Amy asked her mother to check if they still had old photos from her times at preschool. They found a class photo of Amy’s kindergarten class. Lo and behold, there was Amy and Justin, sitting side by side. They could not believe how intertwined their paths had become and how far they had come since.

Amy had thought that Justin was talking about a different Amy he had liked years ago. But it turns out that it was in fact her! In an interview with People, Amy said that “we asked our parents to dig up any preschool photos they had. Justin’s mom found a photo of the two of us together and I just started crying, I was ecstatic. I was the Amy he had liked all those years ago! It was definitely meant to be.” But that wasn’t the end of the story…

A year had come since the couple met on their lovely first date. It turns out that it was in fact the second time they had crossed paths in their lives. And Justin wanted to surprise Amy on the special day. In light of their beautiful story, the couple appeared on ABC’s chat show The View, discussing the events leading up to their relationship. Suddenly, a live feed appeared from their preschool. A class held up a sign, with the all important question…But What was her answer?

The crowd cheered with aplomb and Amy was in tears, incredibly emotional from the ultimate romantic gesture that Justin had made. He then took the moment one step further, getting down on one knee and saying, “Amy I love you so much. You mean the world to me. Will you marry me?” And of course, without hesitation, Amy accepted his proposal and said yes. The couple were proud to make their beautiful story known to the public.

Like most people in the audience, presenter of The View, Candace Cameron, struggled sincerely to hold back her emotions as tears pour down her face as she witnessed Justin’s public proposal. Of course the moment itself was riveting, but it was the power of the moment in the context of a story that had spanned over 30 years. As the crowd cheered in elation, Cameron couldn’t control her emotions and screamed out loud, “I need a tissue!”

The couple had a wonderful year of engagement, and on November 18, 2016, the pair finally tied the knot. They had planned out the perfect wedding and made sure that all their loved ones could make it to witness their special day. Amy Giberson became Amy Giberson-Pounders at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg. The truly beautiful fairytale story, which began 30 years ago at their preschool, came to this triumphant, emotional moment. Maybe this would be the happy ever after that the couple finally deserved.

After the big day, the couple flew to the Caribbean for a delightful two-week honeymoon of island hopping. They started off in the beautiful island of Antigua, before continuing to St. Lucia. Amy commented on her website, saying that “now, I get to spend the rest of my life right next to him and I wouldn’t want it any other way.” The new Mrs. Giberson-Pounders continued by saying, “I don’t know how or why, but one day, I woke up and my life was suddenly a fairy tale.”

After a series of ups and downs and incredible coincidences, Amy and Justin are firm believers that some form of higher power had a part to play in their romantic story. Justin said that “someone or something definitely decided we weren’t supposed to reconnect until now.” Amy attested to this idea, claiming that “if you keep an open heart and an open mind, you can find your true love. You just have to believe and have faith.”

In a powerful, but bittersweet kind of way, the couple honor Adrianne, Justin’s former fiance, and believe that she had something to do with them reuniting after all this time. They have referred to her endearingly as a guardian angel, who guided them towards each other. Amy said, “we believe the day she became his guardian angel, she set out to help heal his heart and take care of Justin. We feel she found me and brought us together.”

In regards to the serendipity surrounding her and Justin’s story, Amy said that “his love has brought my heart and life so much happiness, love, laughter and peace. I’ve never known a peace like this until I met this man. Even beyond the wedding and honeymoon, Amy and Justin want to teach people a valuable lesson: that even though bad things can happen in one’s life, there is always room for happiness. We can all take something from Amy’s words of wisdom: “Never give up on love and love will never give up on you.”