At 12, a young girl lost touch with a 14-year-old boy after a family move, only to end up working with him 20 years later and falling in love with him.
Math teacher Jessica O’Neil is a daughter of divorced parents. From age 12 to 14 she visited her father every other weekend at his Huntsville home with her brother, whom she is very close. O’Neil and her brother became friends with a young boy that lived across the street. They did everything from playing basketball, riding bikes to playing Nintendo all while becoming good friends. Two years later their father moved away, disconnecting them from the young boy.
“Back then you couldn’t really keep in touch because we didn’t have cellphones, only the rich parents had cellphones and we didn’t have Facebook [or any means to stay connected], so we just lost touch,” O’Neil said.
When Deputy Jeff Graves first started working as a School Resource Officer, his main goal was to protect and serve all staff and students. There was never intent to start a relationship, but O’Neil’s smile and eyes attracted him. Though the attraction was there, Graves feared the worse: rejection. There was also a familiar feeling about her.
“She had one of those familiar faces when you’ve seen someone before but, since I was the new guy, I wasn’t going to embarrass myself and be ‘that guy’, so I left it alone,” Graves said.
O’Neil and Graves first outing together, outside of school, was just a dinner. They were unaware that they lived across the street from each other 20 years before. When Grave’s gave O’Neil his address she asked if he lived on a specific street, she knew the exact street he lived on.
“The first thing that went through my mind is I’ve got a stalker,” Graves said.
O’Neil asked him if he was the 14-year-old boy that grew up across the street from her father. He was. After their years apart and both of their divorces, Graves and O’Neil were reconnected.
“I’ve always been told ‘don’t look, she’ll find you’ and she did,” Graves said.
Graves and O’Neil began establishing a friendship between January and March 2014. The relationship became serious around March 2014, after speaking with Principal Mike Campbell and Graves Sergeant. No policy stated a police officer could not date a teacher; although, their bosses expected them to have a professional relationship while at work.
“We both agree that we are going to keep our personal life personal and our work life professional,” Graves said.
Before the relationship began, O’Neil kept hope that true love existed by reading Nicholas Sparks books. In her eyes, a man writing love stories provided proof of their existence. She doubted that women were imagining the true love found in his books. When she found her prince charming her hope was met with happiness.
“As incredible as [Nicholas Sparks] books and movies are, Jeff Graves blows them out of the water,” O’Neil said. “I do feel like a princess who has found her prince charming.”