Woman Remembers One Thing Dad 'Regretted'—30 Years Later She Makes It Right

Newsweek

4 days ago

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A daughter's heartfelt birthday surprise for her father that ties into decades of family history has moved viewers online.
In a June 19 video posted to Instagram, Lauren Screeden showed the moment her 71-year-old father, Jim Screeden, saw the gift she had spent hours tracking down for him—a 1990s-era Zuma sailboat nearly identical to the one he had shared with his late wife and sold decades earlier.
"My dad sold it in the '90s when I was probably 6 or 7 but still talks about how he regrets selling it," Screeden told Newsweek. "It was such 'a great little boat.'"
That boat was part of a long family tradition of summers spent sailing in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
"My dad grew up in Minnesota and has been sailing since he was a kid," she said. "He had this Zuma sailboat with my mom, Patty."
Although they had other boats throughout the years—including a 21-foot Precision day sailer they used while their daughter was in college—sailing slowly faded after Screeden's mom passed away from bladder cancer in 2011.
From left: Lauren Screeden and her dad Jim stand behind the gifted sailboat; and pose for a picture together.
From left: Lauren Screeden and her dad Jim stand behind the gifted sailboat; and pose for a picture together.
@lscreeden
"We owned the 21' Precision day sailer for only a few years before my mom passed away," she said. "My dad sold that a few years ago and hasn't had a boat since then, but sailing has always been and will always be one of his passions."
That passion never fully left, resurfacing even, recently as the family prepared to buy a lake house.
"My dad mentioned to me and my brother, Adam, a few times, 'maybe I could get another little sailboat to keep there...I should've kept that Zuma,'" she said. "He'd always quickly follow-up with, 'but I don't want to impose' and then would change the subject.
"That's just who my dad is—he never wants to impose."
Still, his candid comments stuck with her.
"I talk to him probably every day and would obviously love for him to have a boat to sail again at my house," she said.
With his birthday approaching—just ahead of Father's Day—Screeden started searching Facebook Marketplace. One listing appeared: a Zuma sailboat in near-perfect condition located in Door County, Wisconsin, just under three hours away.
"It was listed for $1,200 but we met in the middle at $1,100," she said.
The seller, it turned out, shared more than just a good price—he had the same area code as Screeden and had worked for 25 years in her hometown.
"It was a wild coincidence," she said.
The overlaid text in her Instagram video read like a slow reveal: "My dad had this sailboat in the 80s/90s that he got with my mom…[He] said he always regretted selling that boat...A few weeks ago I found what looks like the exact boat for sale a few hours away."
Viewers were able to see her father being led to the sailboat, stunned and speechless.
"He immediately set up his boat as you saw in the video—and was really proud of himself that he knew how to rig it after 30 years!" she said. "I kept reminding him there's YouTube, but he didn't need it."
Though there was not enough wind that day to sail, the next morning, Screeden found her father already outside at 5 a.m. tinkering with the new boat.
"We then went sailing twice that day, on Father's Day, and shared lots of memories," she said.
Adding a final emotional layer to the story, her father gave her the green tarp he had kept from the original boat.
"It was almost like he'd been waiting to tuck her back in after all of these years," she said. "Not to sound too cheesy, but why would he keep the cover that long?"
Screeden had initially made the video just to share with family. Her uncle Tom had told her she had to record the moment when he learned she had bought the boat.
"I never imagined this type of response," she said, referring to the viral attention the clip gained.
The online reaction quickly turned deeply personal. Viewers flooded the post with comments about their own lost items, hopes to find long-lost family treasures, and the meaning behind making something right for someone else.
"I was really touched when people said, 'your mom definitely helped make this happen,' because I totally believe in that type of divine intervention," Screeden said.
Others reached out with stories that might help reconstruct the sailboat's journey through other hands.
"Someone asked if my dad first sold it to someone in the Madison, Wisconsin, area because if so, they think their dad bought it and they had great memories on it in the early 2000s," she said. "So maybe one day we'll be able to know the whole story."
Some said the video made them think of the things they would like to find again for their own parents.
"Parents make a lot of sacrifices for their kids, so being able to finally do something for my dad that he would never have bought himself was really special for me," she said.
And for those wondering how such a niche item could be found, Screeden offered this advice: "I keep saying, you never know what will pop up on Facebook Marketplace."
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