Small World: Worland Cousins Meet For First Time On Cruise 5,000 Miles From Wyoming

Cheyenne couple Ron and Diane Downey recently took the trip of a lifetime and were celebrating their 32nd anniversary.

It turned out better than they expected.

They flew 5,000 miles to Basel, Switzerland, and traveled the Rhine River some 800 miles on a cruise ship to Amsterdam, seeing historic castles, the balcony on which Adolf Hitler received cheers from an adoring crowd, and architecture that dates back 1,000 years.

But more than the sights, the most memorable part of the trip was a friendship that began on their first night when some strangers sat down at a table for a meal with them. They were from New Richmond, Wisconsin.

Before the conversation was over, Diane Downey understood that the woman she had just met was her cousin, and that her cousin was born in Worland, Wyoming, where Diane grew up and her parents had a ranch.

“When you go on a cruise you are expecting to meet a mix of people from other countries, from your own country, just a general mix of people,” Diane Downey said. “So, to meet somebody that you’re related to and didn’t ever know about is pretty amazing. … It’s a classic small world moment, right?”

For her husband, Ron, their first trip overseas to meet someone who knew many of the same people his wife did in her hometown represents “pretty astronomical” odds.

“You think there are 7 billion people in the world and two couples that don’t know each other, never met before from different parts of the country go on the same trip at the same time and actually sit at the same table,” he said. “There’s 50 tables or whatever there.”

The overseas trip from Oct. 7-15 is something the Downeys, both 60, had been planning for several years.

Initially, they were going to go with friends from their church several years ago, but the pandemic put an end to those plans.

This was the year that Diane, who works as a dental hygienist, and Ron, who retired from a government finance position and now works in fleet sales for trucks and other equipment, could get schedules aligned. They took the trip with their Cheyenne church friends, as well.

Which River?

The couples had pondered which European river to cruise down and considered the Danube before settling on the Rhine and getting their tickets and itinerary through Viking Cruises.

“So, we boarded the ship in Basel and the next day on the trip at dinner … the four of us were sitting at the table when an elderly couple comes up and says, ‘Can we join you,’” Ron Downey said.

And so began the acquaintance that blossomed into a friendship with Glenda and Don Wiken.

The couples started chatting and when Diane and Ron started talking about Wyoming and Worland, and then heard the names of Glenda’s relatives being mentioned — the light came on.

It turned out Diane Downey’s grandfather and Glenda Wiken’s grandmother were brother and sister.

“I don’t know how the cousins' things work, but we’re cousins down the line, somehow my mom and her dad were cousins,” Diane Downey said.

Names of great aunts who came from Nebraska to help Diane’s mom can green beans and other connections to Worland were uncovered. One of Diane’s great aunts was Glenda’s grandmother. 

Their conversations also revealed that Glenda Wiken’s parents ran the drive-in theater in Worland for a while and Diane’s family, who raised chickens and had milk cows, sold eggs to Glenda’s father for a time.

“I don’t remember Glenda, she’s quite a bit older,” Diane Downey said. “She was grown and gone by the time we were delivering eggs (to her dad) back in Worland.”

After that first night of sharing at the table, the Downeys, their Cheyenne friends and the Wisconsin couple decided to spend the rest of the eight-day cruise enjoying time together.

Ron Downey said that as soon as the family ties were known, Don Wiken went to look for a microphone to announce to all the nearly 200 passengers and 40 crew members their amazing meeting.

Heralding The News

A video of the announcement shows the passengers listening and applauding as Don Wiken and Ron Downey stand and tell the story of the chance meeting.

“It was kind of funny because that made us like celebrities on the ship for the next three days or so,” Ron Downey said.

He said the trip took them from Basel to Strasbourg, France, and German cities such as Cologne, where Hitler in 1936 stood on a balcony as 500,000 Germans paid him homage and he reclaimed the Rhineland for Germany’s military. It had been a demilitarized zone following World War I.

Downey said cruise visitors stood outside a balcony in Cologne and were shown a photo of Germany’s infamous chancellor standing on it above the adoring crowd.

“It’s pretty sobering,” he said.

Other highlights included checking out the architecture of the Cologne Cathedral that took 500 years to build and was completed in 1880, and a castle along the Rhine River in Koblenz, Germany.

Downey said it was kind of “astounding” to see things built 1,000 years ago when in Wyoming something that stretches back 150 years represents the state’s culture and past.

In Strasbourg, France, the couples saw the actual church altar panels that were portrayed on the movie the “Monuments Men.” The panels had been targets for looting by the Nazis during World War II.

Diane Downey said another benefit from the chance friendship is genealogy research that Glenda Wiken had done on their family. If possible, Diane Downey plans to share the research with her mother.

Both the Downeys and Wikens plan to stay in touch and are up for a get-together on this side of the Atlantic.

“What a nice surprise to meet her,” Diane Downey said. “She’s just lovely and so is her husband. And so, I do hope that we can connect at some point in the future.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.