When 33-year-old Justin Pounders was looking ahead at the rest of his life in 2012, he saw himself growing old with one woman—his fiancée, Adrianne Robert. The two were preparing to move in together that July, though, when tragedy struck.
Pounders showed up at Robert’s apartment to help her with the moving process, but she wasn’t the one that greeted him. Instead, police investigators broke the heartwrenching news; after being followed home by a man the night prior, she’d been assaulted and killed in her home.
Pounders was left with a gaping hole in his chest. He had been planning on spending forever with Robert, and now he had to consider the possibility of attempting to move on.
For three years, he couldn’t bring himself to even approach the thought of dating. In 2015, though, he finally took the plunge, joining a dating site called Match.com in an attempt to wade back into the world of romance.
After some time, he matched with a woman named Amy Giberson.
Although he couldn’t explain why, Pounders found himself drawn to Giberson — so he sent her a message, and they agreed upon a first date. From there, a romance quickly blossomed; they went from cautiously optimistic to in love within the first year, feeling as if they’d found their soul mates despite the tragedy Pounders would never forget.
A year into their relationship, Pounders had joked with Giberson about how he loved her name. His first crush, he admitted, had been one of his classmates from his preschool class a full 30 years prior. Her name, just like Giberson, was Amy.
At first, Giberson joked that she didn’t want details about this other girl, since the other Amy wasn’t her.
Little did she know, she couldn’t have been more wrong.
While talking about their preschool days, the pair discovered that Sunshine Preschool in Petersburg, Florida, was where they had both gone as tots, and their ages (both 33) suggested they could have been enrolled in the same class. They each reached out to their parents, looking for preschool photos as they considered the possibility that the Amy who had stolen Pounders’ heart so many years before was back in his life once again.
Sure enough, Pounders’ mom unearthed a picture of the pair from their first days together — and just like that, a 30-year romance in the making was realized.
“Someone or something definitely decided we weren’t supposed to reconnect until now,” Pounders told People Magazine. “We’ve been so close to finding each other this whole time but didn’t until the time was right. And that’s now.”
Pounders and Giberson are now happily in love, but insist that a ‘higher power’ made sure they found each other once again so many years later. It’s possible, they believe, that Robert has been looking down on them —- and knowing that she couldn’t be there for Pounders in the flesh, helped him reconnect with someone who could finally make him believe in true love again.
Pounders explained that ‘someone or something’ guided the two to reconnect, and he has a feeling it’s the woman he fell in love with in between his relationships with Giberson.
Giberson agrees. She told ABC Action that she’s sure Robert had a hand in making sure she appeared in Pounders’ life once his heart was ready to get back out there again, playing with fate from above in order to prevent the two from crossing paths too early.
Before the couple even proposed marriage, they picked out a wedding location and honeymoon destination.
“We’re doing everything backwards, but we don’t care. We’re best friends in love,” said Giberson. “And apparently we always have been.”
They got married a year after realizing how old their relationship truly was, tying the knot in front of 200 friends and family. And yes, they did make sure the logo of their old preschool was included in the ceremony!
Credit: Epoch Times
