True love always seems to win – no matter how many hurdles are in the way.
A timeless love story made for movie screens led to the reunion of one family who was unwillingly separated.
50 years later and finally having the chance to rekindle what they once had, Dennis Vinar and Karen Lehmann chose what their hearts truly desired.
It was a meet-cute between a popular school athlete and the quiet band member.
Vinnar was part of his school’s football team while Lehmann played the clarinet.
Even when they lived in different worlds, Vinnar had always found a way to be with the woman he loved.
He admitted that he missed or was late to a lot of football practices but he never really cared about any of those.
All he knew was he enjoyed spending time with Lehmann and did so by walking her home every chance he got.
Sadly, not everyone was crazy about them being high school sweethearts.
Vinnar was not well-liked by Lehmann’s father.
Things got more complicated when their love resulted in pregnancy at just 15-years-old.
As much as Vinnar wanted to be a father and marry Lehmann, her parents forbid them to.
Lehmann did well in school. She was a valedictorian who dreamt of a college degree.
To pursue this, she was sent to a home for unwed mothers.
She delivered a healthy baby girl that Vinnar was quick to acknowledge.
In their appearance on Steve Harvey’s talk show, she said that when she called Vinnar and asked him if he wanted to sign the birth certificate and hold his daughter, Vinnar replied yes without hesitation.
That would be the last time they’d see their daughter.
Their lives diverged at that moment.
Lehmann pursued her college degree while Vinnar joined the army.
Even if Vinnar wanted to get in touch with Lehmann, her father kept intercepting their calls and letters.
The situation pushed them to move on and forget about the love they once had.
Except they didn’t.
Vinnar admitted that when he was working for a senator, he learned that Lehmann was living in the area where he was working at that time.
In a tearful narration, he told the host and the audience how he knocked on every door in the area in hopes that Lehmann would emerge from one of those.
The search was in vain.
But love will always find a way.
Especially with a love like theirs. Their reunion would finally be realized when a friend invited Vinnar to register with him on the professional networking site Linked In.
“I typed in ‘Karen Lehmann’ and there she was—the third person down,” Vinnar told WUSA9. “And I smacked my hands together and said, ‘That’s my lady!’”
With Vinnar being long divorced, and Lehmann long-widowed, he finally got the “yes” to the proposal he had been asking over and over.
They met on a Monday and got married the next Thursday.
Finally reunited and poised to live out the rest of their lives together, they had one last mission – to complete their family.
They wrote a letter to the adoption agency and found the missing puzzle piece.
Jean Voxland, the couple’s long-lost daughter, got a phone call that would forever change her life.
For the first time in over fifty years, their family was finally complete.
Voxland recalled how surreal and emotional everything was and described everything as a miracle.
Voxland has since welcomed her biological parents into her family.
Their story only proved that love, when it’s true, will always find a way no matter when, no matter how.
Listen to the couple talk about their emotional story and how they reunited with their daughter in the video below!
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