Reunion: Dad, son back together after decades

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DODGEVILLE - After 45 years of separation, a father and son have finally reunited.

On Friday, Randy Wenman and his wife, Esther, came to the Copper Country from Washington state to meet Randy's father, Ray Huff, 74, of Dodgeville. The father and son had last been together when Randy was 5 years old, they said. A divorce, frequent moves and other factors kept them from finding each other earlier, they said.

"She kept moving them and taking them," Huff said of his ex-wife, who died when Randy was 15, leaving him to be raised by his stepfather and later a stepmother. "I tried to get hold of them for years, but I had the wrong last name, they were adopted by their stepfather."

The father and son did talk briefly on the phone after Randy's mother died - that was the last time until this year. "We tried in the middle-'80s but unfortunately back then you had to have a Social Security number to find anybody," he said. "

Two weeks ago, Randy decided to try again, but this time he found paperwork from his parents' divorce in a box with his mother's possessions. Randy and Esther used information from the paperwork to help them narrow down the approximately 150 Earl Ray Huffs who came up in an Internet search.

Randy said the whole process took just over an hour.

"Me and my sister tried for years, and my wife gets on the Internet and it takes an hour," he joked.

The next step was a phone call to see if the man they found really was his father.

"I said, 'This might seem like a strange phone call, but I'm looking for my father,'" Randy said.

Huff said he immediately knew it was Randy and exclaimed, "Randy Ray!"

"I couldn't breathe there for awhile," he said.

Now that the pair is back together again, they have been busy taking phone calls from relatives, looking at photographs and visiting.

"We're just finding all this new family," Esther said. "It's been wonderful making these connections."

Esther said there are several similarities between Randy and Huff.

"It's really cool, the similarities between them," she said. "They have the same interests, the same hobbies. They've both got lots of stories about the cars they've owned, the tickets they've got. Who has got the bigger ticket."

Randy and Esther are going back to Washington on Wednesday but said they plan to visit again in the spring. Randy's sister, Terri, also plans to visit in the spring, they said. They also hope to meet Ray's two sons from his second marriage and introduce Huff to his teenage grandchildren at some point.

"We'll definitely keep in touch, we've got 45 years that we lost," Randy said. "This is the beginning of the story."

"This all seems like a dream to me, it is hard to believe this happened after so many years," Huff said.

Layla Aslani can be reached at laslani@mininggazette.com.

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Layla Aslani/Daily Mining Gazette

Randy and Esther Wenman of Washington state are seen with Randy's father, Ray Huff, far right, of Dodgeville Sunday afternoon. Randy and Huff were reunited Friday after 45 years apart. (Daily Mining Gazette photo)