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“You want to go over to your ex-husband's for Thanksgiving?”

When Denny Daniels (R) and Larry Rolf (L) met in 1990, they were prepared to dislike each other.

At the time, Denny was dating Larry’s ex-wife, Sharon.

At StoryCorps, the two talked about how their unlikely relationship began.

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Recorded in Minneapolis, MN.

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Music Info: "Black Fur" by Fredrik from the album Na Na Ni.

Credits

Produced by Katie Simon with Jasmyn Belcher.

Facilitated by Gaspar Caro.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Denny Daniels (DD): I asked her what she wanted to do for Thanksgiving. She said, "Well, lets go over to Larry's." I said, "Wait a minute. You want to go over to your ex-husband's for Thanksgiving?"

Larry Rolf (LR): I didn't really have a problem when Sharon said that she was bringing somebody. You want to bring someone along, it's just another cup you add to the soup.

DD: I said, "Well, I'll compromise. We'll go for an hour." She says, "That's okay." But we kind of hit it off.

LR: Yeah, by 10 o'clock I thought, "Was this guy going to move in or what?" But I am so glad that Sharon and you got married. I was a complete horse's ass with the relationship that I had. I was drinking, chasing; and Sharon was there. She took care of the kids when I was out in bars. And how she made it--sometimes it just amazes me. And, um, her last years with you I think were probably the happiest in her life. And a couple of weeks before she died, I got to tell her how sorry I was and she forgave me.

DD: I do not know without you if I could have gotten through it. Everyday you would call me, make sure that I was okay. You still do.

When you lose someone that you love, it creates a hole in your soul that is hard to fill and you helped fill that. You are more like a brother than a friend. And I appreciate that so very much.