In this article we apply narrative methodology to the study of pre-service elementary teachers' school-time memories connected to mathematics education. In the first phase of our empirical study we asked 214 Slovenian pre-service teachers to write their mathematical autobiographies. On the basis of the mathematical autobiographies we constructed a prototype story by using narrative analysis. In the prototype we can separate three phases, including the following characteristics: (1) an idyllic phase in elementary education, (2) teachers' lack of ethical and professional competence at secondary level, and (3) a major turning point in upper secondary school, including significantly lower grades and seeing teachers as strict, fear-evoking figures. In the second phase of our study 301 pre-service teachers expressed their percentage identification with the prototype story. Overall, the agreement with the story was very high. Educators' familiarity with biographies could help designing the teacher training program emphasizing mathematics teachers' identities development.