Teen discovers her late mom was boyfriend’s kindergarten teacher: 'I looked and I started crying'

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on May 27, 2022. It has since been updated.

Leah Menzies had been dating her boyfriend for a while and was always sad that she would never be able to introduce him to her mother. Menzies lost her mother when she was just 7, but she was in for a surprise after learning that her mother actually taught her boyfriend, Thomas McLeodd, in kindergarten. Menzies, a college student in Australia, overcame with joy after learning that her mother had met her boyfriend all those years ago. It was her boyfriend who recognized Menzies' mom in the photo. McLeodd had just introduced her to his family for the first time and his mom joked about a silly face he made in a school picture when he was 3 years old. “His mum was telling me how he made this stupid face in a school picture. She thought it was funny,” said Menzies. When McLeodd fetched the picture, he recognized Menzies' mom in the photo, reported TODAY.  

Menzies shared the story in a TikTok video and called it "a moment straight out of a movie." The video showed her running to her boyfriend with the onscreen text reading: "Me thinking my Mum (who died when I was 7) will never get to meet my boyfriend." She runs and jumps into his lap before the video cuts to the opening of a school photo book. "Only to find out she was his kindergarten teacher." The video shows her mom posing along with a group of kids as part of the kindergarten class photo. The adorable video garnered more than 38.9 million views and 10.5 million likes. "Found out through this photo in his photo album," she captioned the video. Menzies said her boyfriend was speechless on recognizing her mother in the photo.

The couple then discussed in detail the moment it dawned on them that her boyfriend recognized her mom in a follow-up video. The couple was responding to questions posted in the comments section of the original video. The pair met in high school but didn't really know each other until they started dating seven months ago. When McLeodd showed her the picture, she was surprised as she "didn't actually know that my mum taught at kindergarten." She added, "I just knew she was a teacher."

"I was so confused because I wasn't looking at it," she recalled the moment her boyfriend showed her the photograph. "I was like, 'Why are you being so dramatic?' And then I looked, and I started crying." She added that McLeodd remembered her mother as well. "His mom remembers that she was really nice and gentle," she said. It meant the world to Menzies that her mother was able to meet her boyfriend. "It's incredible that she knew him," Menzies told TODAY. "What gets me is that she was standing with my future boyfriend and she had no idea."

People couldn't get enough of their adorable story. "You guys are soulmates," said one person. "The fact that she played a part in making him who he is today, for you!!," wrote another. "This is like a plot to a time-traveling romance novel," wrote another. "And this is on the universe works in mysterious ways," commented another person. 

You can follow Leah Menzies (@speccylee) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.