Abby Jimenez called a former high school teacher to thank him—and a video of the emotional call has gone viral.
The Minnesota-based baker and author, known for founding the bakery Nadia Cakes and for her romance novels including The Friend Zone, Yours Truly, and Just for the Summer, posted a video on TikTok of her phoning Tim House, who taught Jimenez creative writing in high school.
In the video, which Jimenez posted with House’s permission, she describes not being able to afford college, and taking jobs in the food industry, working as a waiter before starting Nadia Cakes in her Palmdale, California, house. The bakery now has three locations, one in California and two in Minnesota.
She then talks about writing her first romance novel after years of being a fan of the genre. “I wrote a book…called The Happy Ever After Playlist, and ended up getting my literary agent on my very first query on the strength of that book, and ended up getting a three-book deal with Hachette.”
Jimenez starts crying as she tells House, “The only schooling that I ever had for writing was your class. You made me love writing. You were so encouraging. That was the only class that I liked in my whole high school career…I hated high school, but I loved your class.
“I just wanted to tell you how much you meant,” she continued, “because I don’t know that I would be a writer today if it wasn’t for you.”
“You’re going to make me cry too,” House says. “You’ve accomplished a lot more with writing than I ever will, but that pleases me no end, and I’m so glad you called me.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Jimenez’s video has garnered more than 2 million views on TikTok.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
