Teacher for life turned into teacher for wife.
A couple from Michigan is making headlines not only for their 25-year-age gap but also because the older spouse taught the younger in 2004 as a seventh-grader.
The two married women, Monica Foster (then Ketchum), 32, and wife Michelle Foster, 57, have gotten some strange looks during their surprising romance — but they’ve learned to live with outside opinions.
“People ask, ‘Is that your mom?’ or even, ‘Is that your grandma?’ all the time,” said Monica, a bus driver.
“We learned to laugh or brush it off, but if you see me kissing her, why would you ask if she’s my mom?” Monica added.
While she stressed that they were “obviously not” romantically involved at all when she was a 13-year-old, she was a “goody goody student” and did confess to being a “teacher’s pet.”
After their time in school together ended, Monica — who had just come out as gay — searched on Facebook to see how Michelle was doing in April 2020
By August of 2021, the two began meeting up platonically and connected on deeper levels, with Monica explaining, “We were both in really dark places at that time.”
“Finding someone you can relate to and be vulnerable with felt safe,” she added.
By the following May, they ended prior relationships — Michelle filed for divorce — so that they could be together.
The two were engaged by that fall and had two separate proposals for each other.
“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.
They wed June 17, 2023, and described their Suttons Bay beachfront wedding as a “perfect day.”
“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.
Since tying the knot, she and her two children are looking to “settle down” with Michelle.
“We’re just ready to be home together — I’m ready for some boring, Michelle said.
