LORAIN COUNTY, Ohio — Kathi Simonson remembers the details of walking down the aisle of Fairchild Chapel in 1983. Her contact lens had been dislodged by tears and crept into the corner of her eye. With one hand holding a bouquet and the other through her father’s arm, she couldn’t adjust it.
To add to the tricky situation, she stepped on her wedding dress lining, stumbling a little before making it to her groom.
“I stepped on the corner of my dress going up. But I didn’t fall,” she laughed.
The couple still jokes about the mild mishaps that started off their 42 years of marriage. Kathi said marrying Shaun Simonson was the easy part.
“I don’t know, you just know. He’s my person,” she said. “The fact that my dad liked him, that said a lot.”
For more than four decades, the couple’s wedding memories existed almost entirely in their own consciousness. The only picture they had was a guest’s snapshot of the pair cutting their cake.
“I’d get jealous of other people. I’d see they have their wedding photos in their office or whatever. ‘Oh, I don’t have that. All I’ve got is this little snapshot,’” Kathi said.
She explained they received an album of proofs shortly after the wedding and gave them back to the photographer after selecting which photos they wanted printed.
“We gave him the money and gave him the order and gave him the proofs back. We never saw the pictures, the proofs or the photographer again,” she said. “I’ve always longed for them, wished I had them, felt like I was missing something.”
The Simonsons eventually accepted they’d likely never see their wedding photos again.
That was until Kathi’s childhood friend recognized some pictures posted in a Lorain neighborhood Facebook group.
“I looked and saw it was [Kathi’s] Grandma and Grandpa… And I told my husband, I said, ‘Kathi, Kathi’s wedding pictures!’” said Janice Mann.
Janice recently reconnected with Kathi, years after the two moved from their childhood homes in Kipton. Janice lives in Wellington. Kathi and Shaun moved to Minnesota more than 20 years ago.
Both friends were overwhelmed to see the long-lost photos.
“I’m tearing up, she’s tearing up, because we never expected to see them again,” Kathi said.
The albums of the Simonsons’ wedding photo proofs had ended up with Linda Zaleski. The Amherst resident said she had forgotten she purchased them at a local estate sale.
“I wasn’t sure even where I got them from because I like estate sales. I thought, ‘Oh I’ll just try this Lorain, Ohio group. And within about 10 minutes, someone reached out to me and said, ‘Oh I know who this is,’” Linda said.
Within days, a carefully packed box arrived at Kathi’s Minnesota home with a handwritten note.
“I think probably what’s invaluable were the pictures of her grandparents because she said she didn’t have any,” Linda said.
Kathi said it’s been bittersweet seeing the lost memories and sharing them with her family.
“We have my mother-in-law living with us and she has dementia – Alzheimer’s. She could look at these pictures and she knew everybody in the pictures,” she said.
The unlikelihood of reuniting the long-lost photos with their owners has not gone unnoticed by anyone involved.
“I’m like – ‘Me of all people?’ I’m so glad I recognized them,” Janice said.
Adding to the coincidence, Linda also said she previously lived less than 20 miles from the Minneapolis suburb where the Simonsons currently live.
“We plan to get together the next time I’m up there,” she said.
Kathi said it’s an unforgettable chapter in her love story.
“Miracles happen. And I think it was a miracle. How else could a random post on a Facebook page in Lorain, Ohio if all the stars hadn’t been aligned,” she said.
Catherine Ross is the Lorain County reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @CatherineRossTV, on Facebook CatherineRossTV or email her at Catherine.Ross@wews.com.
