For high schoolers across the country, it’s not just spring. It’s prom season.
It is typical for students to worry about things like their dresses and their date, but for Ohio teen, Trey Potter, of Gahanna High School in Columbus, he’d been planning on taking the right person for a very long time.
The 18-year-old chose to take his mother, MelRo Potter, to his senior prom.
MelRo, 36, had always wanted to attend her high school prom, but had been pregnant at the time after living in 23 foster homes and ultimately chose to drop out of high school.
After giving birth to Trey, she moved to a teen parenting shelter. To support her newborn son, she worked two jobs and later received her GED. She is now an advocate for foster care children.
Growing up, Trey, who will be the first in his family to attend college, had heard about prom from his mother way before he started high school.
“I thought it was this big-kid dance that my mom never got to go to,” he tells People Magazine. “As I got older, I realized how special it is for girls and I told my mom when I was 11 that I was going to take her.”
On April 16, the mother-son duo had their special night.
“That was her night, not mine,” says Trey, “And that’s how I wanted it.”