Dennis and Karen thought their love story ended in high school, but it was far from over. They had a love story for the ages and all it took was fifty years of separation before their story would begin again. This time around Dennis and Karen would be able to include the daughter they were forced to give up for adoption in their love story.
Their happily every after might have taken 50 years, but it was worth the wait.
Dennis Vinar was the popular football player in high school. Karen Lehmann was the quiet clarinet player in high school with dreams of attending college. Their high school paths were already unlikely to cross but they did.
“I walked her home from school every night carrying her clarinet and I missed football practice, but I could care less about football. I just wanted to be with [Karen],” Dennis jokingly admitted.
The unlikely high school couple were madly in love. At the age of 15 Karen realized she was pregnant. How did Dennis react? He proposed. Yet, this was not acceptable to both Dennis and Karen’s parents.
Their parents worked hard to keep the young couple apart.
Karen was sent to a home for unwed mothers and forced to give their daughter up for adoption. When their daughter was born, she could not stop herself from asking Dennis to come and see their daughter at least one time.
“When I delivered the baby I called and asked him if he wanted to come in and sign the birth certificate and hold her and he said, ‘Yes definitely.’ So, that was the last time we saw her,” Karen explained.
Karen went to college and Dennis joined the US Army following high school. Dennis had tried to stay in contact with Karen but they were never able to stay in contact. Dennis’ family had moved and Karen’s father kept intercepting Dennis’ letters before Karen could see them.
For 50 years Karen and Dennis went on to live separate lives.
Everything changed when Dennis decided to join LinkedIn.
Dennis explains, “I saw the search bar up there and I just typed in Karen Lehman and there she was, the third person down. When I called her the first thing I asked her was ‘What’s her relationship status?’ I said, ‘If you’re single and I’m single … where do I fly into?'”
Three months later, Dennis flew to Seattle, Washington to reunite with his high school sweetheart. When she picked him up, she ran out of her car and jumped onto Dennis and wrapped her entire body into his, legs and all.
50 years later and their spark was still as hot as ever.
Dennis and Karen had physically reunited on a Monday and were married by Thursday morning!
Dennis knew the next step to their reunion was to find the daughter they had been forced to put up for adoption so many years prior. Karen was a bit more hesitant. She did not want to disrupt her biological daughter’s life, who was 54 years old at that point.
“Dennis persisted and he’s had several reasons why he thought we should look for her, but it was the one comment that he made one day that turned the corner. When he said, ‘Karen I found you, now my life would be complete if we would find our daughter,'” Karen explained.
Once Karen was on board the reunited couple worked on reuniting with their daughter and were able to find her.
Jean Voxland was 55 years old when she met her biological parents for the first time. She was shocked that her parents were together and in love. It was a joyous reunion for the family that had been separated for decades and their was not a dry eye in the room when they reunited.
“I got warm all over and my heart started to pound and the tears just filled my eyes … It was like, ‘I look like somebody!’ and I kind of felt like I belonged,” Jean admitted.
Watch their incredible story unfold in the video below!
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