It was October 10, 1987, when the two Warren natives, then 17 and 15, attended the Homecoming Dance at Warren Area High School. Scott, a senior, and Jenny, a sophomore, had mutual friends but were not a couple.

She cheered for the Dragons with his sister, Sheila, and their paths crossed occasionally, but the dance marked their one shared experience in those high school years.

“We knew each other, but we never really dated,” Scott recalls. “It was just a dance. But, as it turns out, it was the beginning of something neither of us could have foreseen.”

After high school, Scott went on to Penn State, while Jenny attended Mercyhurst University. Although both were in Erie, Pa., at the same time, they never ran into each other. Their lives took different paths. Scott married, had three daughters, and eventually moved to Gettysburg, Pa. Jenny married as well, raising three sons in Roanoke, Va.

Pictured are Jennifer Farnham and Scott Freeman’s in their Homecoming Dance photo from 1987.

It wasn’t until 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, that their lives intersected again – though not in person. Instead, it was Facebook that played matchmaker. Both had gone through divorces, and despite the passing decades, there was still a connection between them – one reignited as they began texting and talking on the phone.

“After everything we had both been through, we were ready to rediscover what life had in store for us,” Scott says. “And I’m glad we did.”

The reconnection wasn’t immediate love at first sight but a slow burn. They spent over a year chatting, sharing stories about their lives, their children, and the years that had passed. In 2021, Scott moved closer to Jenny, relocating to an apartment near her in Roanoke, Va., where she had been living for many years.

Jenny, who had been teaching kindergarten, was now the school secretary and bookkeeper, while Scott worked as an IT consultant. Their new lives as singles with grown children seemed worlds apart from the dance they’d shared decades earlier, but something had shifted.

By Christmas Eve 2022, they had become a blended family — a “modern-day Brady Bunch,” as Scott likes to joke — and Scott proposed to Jenny in front of their six children.

On November 23, 2024, Scott and Jenny married in a ceremony that’s been decades in the making. Scott said, “It was more special than we even dreamed, It was perfect. The stars aligned for a couple kids from Warren.”

Both still have roots in Warren, Pa., and they come home to visit when they can.

“It is usually over the July 4th holiday or, as we refer to it, Warren’s Christmas!” said Scott.

For Scott and Jenny, their story serves as a reminder that life is unpredictable – love can come when you least expect it, sometimes after years, sometimes after decades. While they were young and unaware of this possibility then, their lives were already intertwined by shared experiences and mutual connections. And now, as they prepare to begin their new chapter together, they appreciate how far they’ve come.

“We could never have predicted this,” says Scott. “But sometimes, life gives you a second chance at something beautiful, and we’re lucky enough to get that.”