They broke up in high school. Years later these Germantown HS grads reconnected on Facebook and got married.

When Chermond Thomas broke up with his girlfriend Sabrina Foulks in high school after dating only a few months, Foulks did not like how it all happened.

“He wrote me a letter,” recalled Foulks — now Foulks-Thomas. “It was terrible, terrible." She was then a freshman and he was a sophomore at Germantown High School. He was her first boyfriend while Thomas had dated before.

Thomas said they were "somewhat cordial" to each other in school after the breakup. But this was Foulks-Thomas' first relationship, and it was not how she envisioned a relationship would end.

“I was so mad at him," said Foulks-Thomas, who graduated in 2000, a year behind Thomas. In high school, Foulks-Thomas never knew why Thomas broke up with her.

She was so mad she refused to attend any sporting events that Thomas played in — an extreme sacrifice since Thomas was a star football player on the 1998 state championship team.

When they graduated, Thomas went to Southern University in Louisiana, while Foulks-Thomas went to the University of Minnesota. They were both embracing their future, new experiences and were not looking back.

Or so they thought.

They eventually did what a number of their high school classmates did in that era: They reconnected on Facebook. At first, their renewed relationship was casual. Then sparks flew. In 2012, they got married.

'I had no intention of coming back'

When Thomas moved to Louisiana, he loved the area, the university and the adventure of a new place.

"I had no intention of coming back, except to visit," he said. But plans can change, especially if you reconnect with someone on Facebook and fall in love. According to recently released data compiled by The Washington Post, Wisconsin ranks third in the nation for the number of people who marry local.

Thomas said he can probably name about 30 people from his high school who married within their high school. Foulks-Thomas agreed, adding that many were not high school sweethearts.

Lisa Snow and her husband Chad were among them.

"It was never on my radar," said Snow, who graduated from Germantown in 1999. She married Chad, whom she knew in high school and were in the same social circle.

Snow said she ran into a classmate at a wine shop she worked at. When she asked how Chad was doing, the classmate said, "Why don't you ask him?" and handed her his phone as Chad was on the call.

Snow later looked up Chad on Facebook and began having daily conversations with him. That led to the two getting married more than 10 years ago.

"He lived in Texas, and he wanted to get back in Wisconsin," Snow explained. "He thought he would never live here, and now he says how beautiful it (the area) is."

Communication between the two changed the second time around

Foulks-Thomas said that by connecting on Facebook and then calling each other worked very well because the communication was different.

She said that they were able to have deeper conversations and focus more on having good communications with each other.

Both said Facebook helped them break the ice by talking about Germantown or high school memories as they both have gone to school with each other since elementary school.

Thomas, who lived in Milwaukee, participated in Chapter 220, a voluntary busing racial integration program.  Foulks-Thomas already lived in Germantown. They both said they noticed each other in middle school.

"There were not many Black girls in Germantown," said Thomas. "I noticed she was pretty."

Soon, they were talking nearly every day and conversation flowed seamlessly.

'So, why did you break up with me?'

When they started dating the second time around, their relationship was entirely long distance. When he visited, they would go out. At first, it was fun, and Foulks-Thomas, who had one biological child who is nearly 18, was not really looking to getting married.

But they communicated well together and were able to talk about any important issues in a relationship. So Foulks-Thomas finally ventured the question: "So, why did you break up with me?"

Thomas admitted right away his reason was immature, but he explained his thinking at the time.

It was getting near Christmas, and Thomas thought he would have to buy Foulks-Thomas a Christmas present. Since he did not have any money, he thought his mother would be mad if he asked her for some money. It would have been hard to explain the relationship to her, so he broke up with Foulks-Thomas instead.

"He said that was immature of him," Foulks-Thomas said. They talked candidly about the breakup and were able to laugh about it. "You missed out on a lot of good games," Thomas quipped.

After doing the long-distance relationship, they started asking each other, What should we do next? When they decided to get married, Thomas said he would relocate.

"He said we can pick any state outside of Wisconsin," she recalled. "He did not want to come back."

But Foulks-Thomas wanted to live in Wisconsin to be near her family that she is close to and that's what they ended up doing.

Foulks-Thomas now has a midwife business called Birth in Color Midwifery, LLC, where she has a lot of Wisconsin-area clients. Thomas obtained a graduate degree at Marquette University and works in education.

They have since bought a house in Sussex. They have three children: Jonae Thomas, 17, Thomas-Foulks' biological child; Cree Thomas, 6, a child they had together; and Akai Thomas, who is almost 2 who they adopted together.

Thinking back, Thomas said he never envisioned his life and subsequent marriage making that kind of turn. For Foulks-Thomas, she said she kind of, in an ironic way, did. She recalls writing about the relationship in her journal.

"I journaled I would connect with him and would get married," she said. She even remembers a teacher being surprised they broke up and thought they would stay together. That teacher, years later, was invited and attended their wedding.

Even her 17-year-old daughter has said: "You actually are meant for each other."

Foulks-Thomas said the foundation for the marriage works well as it focuses on effective communication, their children and "our faith in God."

"We love it here," said Foulks-Thomas.

Cathy Kozlowicz can be reached at 262-361-9132 or cathy.kozlowicz@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KozlowiczCathy.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: After a teenage breakup, couple reconnects and marries years later