Valentine's Day 2022: Bucks County Childhood Sweethearts Reunite Thanks To Their Moms
BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) -- Monday is Valentine's Day and love is in the air at the Bucks County Playhouse. The stars? A Broadway actress and her childhood crush.
"Oh how we've changed," Chris Cook said.
"I think we're equally as cute," Christy Altomare said, as the two held pictures of each other from grade school.
Cook and Altomare's story is about how fate knows no bounds.
"We couldn't believe it ourselves how compatible we were after all this time," Altomare said.
But their journey to this day was not instant. The pair reunited after 20 years at the Bucks County Playhouse thanks to their moms.
"I get up on stage and his mom goes, 'She's not wearing a ring, she's not wearing a ring. What's going on?'"
Altomare is a Broadway actress known for her performance in "Anastasia." Like many, the pandemic altered her plans as New York City's theater scene stood at a standstill.
She returned to her hometown in Bucks County only to find out her grade school crush was now divorced.
"What ended up happening was we talked for five days straight pretty much," Altomare said.
"Literally all through the night," Cook said.
Fast forward to Feb. 5, Cook, a software engineer, proposed at the exact place where they reunited a year ago.
"I coordinated with her sister to hide behind a tree and get video and pictures and that is when I asked you to marry me," Cook said.
"It was so magical," Altomare said.
Their romance is proof that not all fairytales have a playbill.
"What I hope people take away from it is that, if you're in a bad spot or bad place, good things will come into your life when you least expect it," Cook said.