The Preacher's Fiancée (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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What happened on May 22, 1993, that shocked a community?
On May 22, 1993, a man named Kurt was carrying some boxes into his new home. He had just moved into this two-story house, along with his fiancée, whose name was Kem. Kurt went into the house, and he dropped the boxes in the foyer, and then he turned back to head back down to the car to get another load. And as he walked down the steps, he passed his fiancée, Kem, and they smiled at each other. She was making her way up, he was making his way down. But seconds after they passed each other, right as Kurt got back to the car, he felt this incredible pressure and blast wave hit him in the back that almost sent him flying. And then when Kurt turned around, he could not believe what he saw. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do.
So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Buttons house and replace their toothpaste with numbing cream. Okay, let's get into today's story.
On the evening of Friday, May 21st, 1993, a 29-year-old woman named Kem Wenger clapped her hands together in front of her with happiness in the basement of the Golden Congregational Church in rural Iowa. Her closest friends had gathered here to throw Kem and her fiancé, 32-year-old Kurt Simon, a combination wedding shower and goodbye party, and now they were presenting the couple with their gift. It was a money tree planted in a little yellow coffee can with envelopes full of cash hanging off of it. Cam and Kurt both smiled and began making their way through the crowd to give everybody a big hug and to say thank you. Tonight was a big night for them. All their plans were finally falling into place.
Tomorrow, they would pack all of Kurt's belongings into their car, and they would drive 230 miles south from the place where he had been living in Iowa to the city of Bloomington, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, where Kem already lived. And in Bloomington, they would begin their new life together as a soon-to-be-married couple, raising Kem's two children from previous relationships. It had been a whirlwind eight months since they had first met on actually a blind date. Cam had known almost immediately that Kurt really was something special. But it hadn't been easy for them to get to this point. They both had almost no money. Kurt was studying to be a Presbyterian minister and living in Iowa to finish seminary school.
And Cam was a single mom living in Bloomington who had just recently quit her office job because her co-worker was sexually harassing her. She'd taken on off-the-books work as a hairdresser and house cleaner, but she still had to rely on public assistance to make ends meet. The long-distance relationship itself was also just exhausting, with all the driving back and forth. and it didn't help that Kem had contentious relationships with the fathers of both of her kids. Her one-year-old son's father, Dale Fosdick, was always late with his child support payments, and he still acted like he was entitled to walk right into Kem's house anytime he wanted. Kurt had actually recently confronted him about doing that and told him to stop, which Dale did not seem to appreciate.
Her seven-year-old daughter's father, Todd Wenger, really wasn't much better. Todd fought with Kem all the time over their custody arrangement, and he and her other ex, Dale, were actually friends, which really annoyed Kem. But now, as somebody handed Kem a piece of cake in the church basement, all those problems seemed like they were about to get a whole lot smaller. Kurt was moving in, and Kem was about to get her whole life organized. Waiting for her at home in Bloomington, she had a whole collection of Modern Bride magazines so she could plan their wedding. And she and Kurt were actually talking about Kurt maybe adopting her son. And she knew Kurt could very quickly get a job in Bloomington as a pastoral counselor.
And they could maybe save some money by only having to pay for one residence now.
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