does everyone in this area know the karlsen family? >> probably most of seneca county knows one or all of us. >> reporter: karl's wife was gone, but he still had his three little kids to think about. >> he went back to work at the stone quarry for a while. and he then saw an opportunity at a local glass manufacturing plant that had just opened. >> reporter: was there a lot of concern for karl having just lost his wife? >> i think everybody realized this poor guy isn't going to do it on his own. >> reporter: so people helped out. it all seemed to come together for him when he met cindy best at a line dancing party in 1992. >> he told me he lost his wife in a fire, and he was a single dad raising three kids on his own. >> reporter: cindy got herself an instant family when she married karl in august of 1993. they bought a farm soon after that. and between the farm and the glass job, karl was busy. cindy was desperate to have a child of her own, so she and karl went through in vitro fertilization. you were going to have the baby you always