Mom dreaded her 30-year high school reunion. Then it rekindled love story with her ex

A mom in Illinois almost didn’t go to her 30th high school reunion — but little did she know she’d meet her future husband there.

Four years ago, Heidi and Parker Armbruster of Quincy attended their 30th high school reunion and reconnected after having dated all of freshman year before parting ways, Avery Schlipman, Heidi’s daughter, told McClatchy News in an interview.

Schlipman posted a montage of the couple’s love story on her TikTok account on July 31.

“My mom did not want to go at all,” Schlipman said. “A couple of their friends there knew they both had been recently divorced, and they started talking at the reunion. I remember Parker came over that night and hung out with us for a little.”

She said Parker started “coming around and just kinda never left.”

The video that’s gathered over 8.2 million views as of Aug. 2 shows Parker being goofy with Heidi’s family and explains that Parker became someone they could trust, count on and make their mom happy again.

“Once he started coming around, we just knew they were meant to be,” she said.

In a TikTok posted by Schlipman on Aug. 1, she shows a note someone left in Parker’s high school yearbook saying, “Have lots of fun next year, you’re a real sweetie. Hope you and Heidi get back together.”

And on Christmas Eve, the couple announced the news that they were engaged.

Schlipman said the family was eager to rush the couple into getting married after Heidi’s father got sick.

Although her father died a month after their engagement was announced, her future husband was able to ask him for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

“It meant a lot to me that Parker was able to get my dad’s blessing for my hand in marriage before he passed away,” Heidi Armbruster said in a statement to McClatchy News. “He wanted to make sure I was taken care of.”

The wedding was in May and was intimate as it was both the couple’s second marriage, Schlipman said.

Users on TikTok jumped to the comments to share their feelings toward the video, with one commenter saying “definition of right person wrong time.”

“Ugh I just love when moms find love again,” another said.

As for Parker being accepted into the family, Schlipman said she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“He fills the missing piece our family needed,” Schlipman said. “Everyone loves him, and I just couldn’t imagine what things would be like without him.”

Quincy is along the Illinois-Missouri border and is about 300 miles southwest of Chicago.

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