Karen Lehmann played the clarinet and was the type to get straight A’s. Dennis Vinar was your jock who played for the football team. It’s like a classic high school rom-com flick except this really happened.
The type where the cool kids ruled and the nerds were always studying but secretly crushing on the hot guy. Classic.
“It was a fascination probably,” Lehmann recalled . “I was intrigued.”
And just like in the movies, the jock actually knew of the straight A girl.
Introductions were quickly arranged and soon, the two began dating. Insert your choice of song here as they arrive in the jock’s car as all the students stare in fascination at the new couple.
It was 1958, and Lehmann and Vinar were officially a couple.
“With not much to do in this small town, [we] would go to dances in the school cafeteria after home football and basketball games,” Lehmann remembers.
Vinar and Lehmann would walk home for two blocks very day, even missing on their after school activities.
In 1960, Lehmann found out she was pregnant.
Karen’s parents sent her to a Lutheran Social Services home for girls. It was the place for girls who got pregnant out of wedlock.
Dennis couldn’t visit her all the time as she now lived farther away. He had school and football to deal with. It must have been so heartbreaking for him.
Then on August 13, 1961, Karen gave birth to “Denise”. The baby had her dad’s blue eyes. Dennis was more than willing to hold his daughter and sign her papers but within an our, Denise was put up for adoption.
That was the last time they saw her.
Vinar enlisted in the army while Lehmann pursued her college degree. Dennis and Karen wanted to stay in touch like most lovers but Karen’s father wouldn’t have any of it.
After seeing service in Germany, Dennis went to Karen’s place and proposed. Karen’s parents disapproved saying their daughter wasn’t done studying. Karen had no choice but to break up with Dennis.
Decades later, Vinar and Lehmann had their own respective families but like the perfect plot twist, fate intervened.
At a dinner party in 2014, the party’s host asked the question, “If your physician gave you 60 days to live, who would be one person with whom you would like to talk or have dinner?”
Vinar, without hesitating, searched for Lehmann online. He found her LinkedIn profile.
“There she was—the third person down,” Vinar recalled. “And I smacked my hands together and said, ‘That’s my lady.’”
Vinar left a message, and Karen called the next day.
“How did you find me?”
She immediately asked.
“Whatever happened to hi, hello, how are you?”
Vinar asked jokingly.
The old lovers began chatting for three months daily.
Perfect timing as Dennis was divorced and Karen was a widower. 2014 was their year.
In January 2015, Vinar flew to Portland, Oregon, to visit his adult son. On the way home, he took another flight to Monroe, Washington. He wanted to see Lehmann.
The old lovers met at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, finally face-to-face.
“She got out… ran around, jumped on me, and said, ‘Babe, you’re home,’” Vinar said.
On that day, they decided to get married in the next 24 hours.
Vinar and Lehmann exchanged vows on January 22, 2015. The only thing missing now was their daughter, Denise.
“It took me all those years to find you, and now? It would make my life complete to find our daughter.”
Vinar told Lehmann.
They contacted the adoption agency and found out that Denise was now Jean Voxland. She had a husband and three children, all living in Kenyon, Minnesota.
Dennis and Karen wrote a letter and sent it to her.
Jean’s husband, Andrew, gave her the letter when she got back from work. 54 years later and out of nowhere she receives a letter from her real parents. You can imagine her surprise!
Jean wrote back. Five pages of words and photographs later, she sent her letter. Dennis and Karen responded as soon as they received her letter, and soon they were trading responses.
Voxland found herself in her parents’ home a year later. She had this to say,
“I got warm all over, my heart started to pound, and the tears just filled my eyes. The questions you have when you’re raised… who you are and your identity…I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Those sparkling blue eyes of hers and her dad’s was the clincher.
“I never ever looked like anybody — ever,” she said.
Dennis, Karen, and Denise have since made up for lost time. There were so many stories shared and so many holidays made up for. This is a treasure of a story. One we hope is turned into a movie. Please do.
Listen to Dennis, Karen, and Jean below!
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