A Perfect Match

Hearts may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Valentine's Day, but for this lowa couple, a kidney was the ultimate gift of love.

- By Lisa Foust Prater

Jason and Mandy Dittmer share a joyful marriage, a loving family, a passion for farming... and a set of kidneys. Their lives have taken some unexpected turns, but they say fate brought them together for a reason.

Crossing Paths

For four generations, the Dittmer family has been raising Polled Herefords, hogs, and crops near Lacona in south-central Iowa. Jason always wanted to join the family business but didn't know if it would happen.

"When I was a kid, it seemed impossible," he said. "Through the '80s and '90s, that was a rough time for farmers, and most people my age probably had another job when they began farming. I still do." He has spent 28 years working nights as an X-ray and radiology technician an hour away in Des Moines and farming during the day.

Mandy, a fifth-grade teacher, also comes from a long line of farmers. When she was young, her family lived a quarter mile from the Dittmer farm, but they moved to an acreage, where they kept a few Limousin cattle and hogs.

Flash-forward a couple of decades: Jason and Mandy had each married, had children, and were single again. They started dating and were married in 2021. "Farm life wasn't new to me when Jason and I got married, but I'd been away from it for 20 years. I was a little rusty, but I was excited to come back," Mandy said.

"I love the livestock. That's always been something that I enjoyed, but I hadn't worked with farrowing, and that became my favorite part of the whole operation, which surprised me.

"I also enjoyed the crop part of it. I'd never driven a tractor, and I got to plant beans the first year we were together, so that was cool." Jason enjoyed seeing Mandy get back to her farm roots. "She was great.

Very patient, which was important," he said. "She wasn't afraid to get dirty and work hard."

Taking a Detour