Woman finds husband’s note in her 9th‑grade yearbook, written back when they were just friends — revealing a secret about their relationship
A woman looking through her old ninth-grade yearbook was reminded of how her love story quietly began long before marriage was ever part of the picture. The yearbook belonged to Sarah Wilder Hecht and included a handwritten message from Steven Hecht, who later became her husband. At the time, the two were seated together as friends in high school. Posted on TikTok by @sarwhecht and reported by PEOPLE on Saturday, January 10, 2026, the adorable story is gaining attention for linking a teenage memory to a present-day marriage. The post was shared on October 24, 2025, and showed how a ninth‑grade yearbook from the early 2000s still held a personal record of a relationship that would take years to fully form.
Sarah Wilder Hecht and Steven Hecht first became friends in high school, often ending up seated next to each other in class. After graduating in 2005, they went their separate ways and did not stay in contact. Years later, they crossed paths again at a festival in Atlanta in 2013. That meeting led to regular conversations and soon to dating. Their relationship continued to grow, and in 2017, they got married. Not long after the wedding, Sarah was visiting her parents and began looking through old belongings from her school days, curious to see if any memories connected to Steven were still there. "I was like, 'I wonder if we have any pictures together in high school,’ because we were friends."
As she flipped through her ninth-grade yearbook, Sarah came across a message Steven had written more than 15 years earlier. “Sarah, it’s too bad school is ending and I don’t get to hear your incoherint (misspelled) [sic] rambling anymore. Have a good summer and try not to think as hard as this guy. See ya next year, Steven,” the note read, with an arrow pointing to a stressed-looking person on the next page. “I was looking through it, and I saw that, and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, that is so funny. I need to keep that forever,’” Sarah told the outlet. Steven, however, did not remember writing it and joked that he would never misspell those words.
Sarah admitted she could not recall what she wrote in Steven’s yearbook, but guessed it was probably very long. She said she liked him even back then, describing him as quiet and unintentionally funny. Now parents to 5-year-old twin boys, the couple will both turn 40 this year and celebrate nine years of marriage in May. Sarah said their high school friends are likely still surprised by the match, given their opposite personalities. "He's very shy, he's very quiet, as you can tell from his post. I'm outgoing, I'm the talkative one. But it's a good balance." Her TikTok post received more than 122,400 views and over 7,500 hearts. One thing Sarah was confident about was that her partner “was clearly smitten from the start,” as she joked in the caption of the viral post.