Piper Phillips' parents have been married for 24 years.
During a flight recently, Phillips stumbled upon text messages between her parents that she had to share on social media.
The messages were of her dad's plans for picking up her mom from the airport.
She and her mother, Verena, were flying home after a trip to Florida when she accidentally saw texts between her mom and dad. The 23-year-old content creator recorded a precious interaction between her parents and posted it online for her followers to see.
“Accidentally read my dad’s text to my mom while flying home from my grandparents’,” Phillips captioned her eight-second TikTok video, which showed messages on her mom’s phone screen.
Phillips' father, Rob, texted, “Would you like an iced oat milk latte waiting for you in the car when I pick you up?”
“You are so sweet,” Verena typed in reply.
Phillips summed up their wholesome exchange in just a few words: “To be loved is to be known,” she wrote in overlaying text, though she tells PEOPLE it's not a phrase she or her parents have used before.
“It was just the little thing of him anticipating her needs and wants, knowing that her habits are getting a coffee when she lands after a long flight. Knowing a person so well is just such a true form of love,” Phillips says of her now-viral video, which has over 493,000 likes and 6.8 million views on TikTok.
The video received a ton of positive comments with appreciation for Verena and Rob, who will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in August.
“That’s the kind of love I’m looking for,” one user said, adding, “She’s got a good one!”
Another person commented, “This, or nothing! Don’t settle ladies.”
Phillips shares that this kind of romantic interaction is not as common and that people should take their time to find true love.
“I can imagine that if people grew up with divorced parents, or grew up in a household where the parents weren't really affectionate to each other, it can be hard to not have that model of love,” she says, adding, “It makes me really happy that people are seeing the video and realizing their own worth and that everyone deserves to be loved like that.”
Some viewers wondered why Rob didn’t ask his daughter if she wanted a coffee too, but Phillips' journey didn’t end when they landed in Chicago, where her parents live. Instead, she had a connecting flight to her current home in New York City. Phillips says her dad would’ve definitely added to the order if she were flying home with her mother.
“Our love language is Starbucks. I'm not even kidding,” says Phillips, who has two brothers. “My family just loves to get coffee and talk.”
The young influencer witnessed her parents express their love in many languages throughout her life. She’s grateful to have grown up around examples of a strong and loving partnership, like how Verena shows up whenever Rob — who works as a lawyer and plays the drums as a side gig — performs with his band.
In fact, Verena even brings her girlfriends along to hear her husband’s music, Phillips says.
“They'll be dancing out on the floor, even though my mom has heard these songs a billion times,” she says. “It's so cute to see both of them support each other equally.”
The Phillips family is going on a cruise to the Mediterranean in honor of their milestone anniversary this year. The TikToker shares how their vacation plans highlights her parents' marital success mastered by Verena's and Rob's ability to compromise.
“My parents have become big cruise people,” Phillips says. “My mom loves to travel … and my dad likes comfort, so they found that the cruises are a really good, happy medium for them.”
Source: People