I Married My Favorite High School Teacher — People Mistake Her for My Grandma

Monica and Michelle Foster are causing a stir online with their relationship because of their 25-year age gap and the way they first met: Monica was a 13-year-old student in high school and Michelle was her teacher. Despite the heavy criticism, the couple opened up about the intricacies of their romance and how it remains strong.

Michelle and Monica didn’t talk between 2004 and 2020.

Michelle Foster taught Monica (née Ketchum) in 2004, but the former student guarantees nothing ever happened then between them. “Michelle was my seventh-grade teacher, and she was my favorite — I was a teacher’s pet,” Monica admitted. “We didn’t have any relationship besides her being a good teacher — until I reached out on Facebook 16 years later.”

After the school year finished in 2004, Monica lost all contact with her teacher. It was only in April 2020, when Monica was already 28 years old, that she decided to look her up on social media and see how she was doing. The move was motivated by the fact that Monica was having a hard time with her family because she had come out as gay, and she recalled Michelle’s class being a “safe place.”

The now-retired teacher was surprised to get a message from her “goody-goody student” so many years later, but they started talking, and by August 2021, they began meeting up platonically and ended up becoming close friends. “We were both in really dark places at that time,” Monica explained. “Finding someone you can relate to and be vulnerable with felt safe.”

They ended their previous relationships to be with each other.

By May 2022, they realized their relationship had evolved into a romance. They both made the decision to end their prior relationships to be together, with Michelle filing for divorce from her then-wife. Only a few months later, in September 2022, Monica popped the question to Michelle and they became engaged.

They had to learn to live with criticism over their age gap.

But not everything in their relationship was going smoothly, as the couple had to find ways to overcome the constant attacks by trolls online. Being repeatedly mistaken for mother and daughter “several times every day,” with some even assuming Michelle is Monica’s grandmother, became a challenge as well.

Although Monica dealt with it better, Michelle struggled, especially at the beginning of the relationship. “I’ve always been attracted to older people, so the gap wasn’t an issue for me, but Michelle worried about it at first,” Monica said. “I try to let it go, but it does hurt — age doesn’t matter to us, so why does it matter to other people?”

“People ask, ’Is that your mom?’ or even ’Is that your grandma?’ all the time. We learned to laugh or brush it off, but if you see me kissing her, why would you ask if she’s my mom? Another question I get asked is whether I loved her when I was 13 — obviously not,” Monica declared.

Fortunately, Michelle learned to leave the hate behind and push forward with the relationship. “As we grew close, I was worried about the age gap, and I was worried about how we first met, but I had to let it all go,” Michelle said. “It became clear I had to make a choice for myself, and when I did, it was the weight of the world lifted. Once I let go, it didn’t matter what anyone thought. Since I let go of that, we just flowered.”

Their wedding was a “perfect day.”

They tied the knot officially on June 17, 2023, at a small beachfront ceremony. “Our wedding day was so significant to me — I don’t care what people think because they’re not living my life, I am,” Monica said.

But the celebration of their love didn’t start there. 2 nights earlier, they had a “mini wedding” so Monica’s children from her previous relationship, Zeke, 7, and Charlie, 5, could enjoy the moment. “They still talk about it — Charlie asks to wear her wedding dress and Zeke was wearing a rainbow bowtie,” Monica revealed.

Since getting married, Monica and her 2 children are aiming to “settle down” with Michelle who’s “just ready to be home together” and “ready for some boring.”

Age never stopped anyone from doing anything, and it isn’t any different for a 91-year-old grandpa who made his own dream come true. Although he’s at the age when most enjoy being retired, Rohloff decided to open his own barbershop, and his story is inspiring many!