MYRTLE CREEK, Ore.
Katie Alaimo/AP
They had been apart nearly two years when Thouvenel, thanks to a tip from a friend, found his daughter and estranged ex-girlfriend at a Salvation Army homeless shelter in Spokane, Wash.
MYRTLE CREEK, Ore. — Bryan Thouvenel's daughter only remembered that he played guitar.
They had been apart nearly two years when Thouvenel, thanks to a tip from a friend, found his daughter and estranged ex-girlfriend at a Salvation Army homeless shelter in Spokane, Washington.
Now, a grant from nonprofit Time to Put Kids First is sending Thouvenel and his 5-year-old daughter, Harmony Rain Thouvenel, to Kauai, Hawaii.
"It's about building memories," Thouvenel, 41, said. "When I got her back...."
Thouvenel, a once aspiring songwriter who had already lived rough and fathered two daughters before he was 30, said he was dragged by friends to a karaoke night at a bar in 2010. He met a girl there and sang to her The Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road."
Their two-year relationship brought a daughter whose middle name, Rain, also came from a song by The Beatles. But the relationship turned sour and, eventually, his ex-girlfriend took Harmony and headed north to Washington.
Thouvenel fell apart.
Katie Alaimo/AP
Bryan Thouvenel rides on a scooter while watching his daughter Harmony Thouvenel, 5, on her bike.
"Those memories, for me, they're painted on my heart," Thouvenel said. "To find out they weren't painted on hers — it was devastating."
They were in Washington somewhere, but for all intents and purposes they were off the map for two years. He searched with few results. However, he filed for custody at the Douglas County Courthouse and was eventually awarded custody in March 2015.
Then, while talking with his mother at a restaurant in Myrtle Creek, a friend phoned him to say he saw Harmony at a Salvation Army site in Spokane. His mother, Cindy Lorenz, jumped toward the car.
"She's not in the best of health in the world, you know, but she drove for 10 hours straight until we got up there to the courthouse," Thouvenel said.
After getting a court order from a local court in Spokane, Thouvenel and Lorenz eventually brought Harmony and her mother to the courthouse where a judge ultimately put Harmony back in Thouvenel's custody. After the decision, a police officer told Thouvenel to wait on a bench outside the courtroom.
"I sat there and the next thing you know I've got my daughter coming out, walking by herself," Thouvenel said. "She's kind of looking around, and I said her name once. She kind of looked at me funny and I said 'Harmony, it's daddy.' Her eyes just kind of lit up."