MOGADORE, Ohio — Daniel and Deanna Duma couldn’t be more in love, just married in July with their first child on the way. Finishing each other’s sentences as they recapped their epic love story in a storage room, above the bustling Duma Meats Farm Market, they barely took their eyes off each other.
“When you meet the right person, you know,” Daniel said.
Their whirlwind romance ignited as fire crews worked to clean up the devastating aftermath of the milking parlor fire at Deanna’s family’s farm, Comp Dairy Farm, last year. Her father, Jerry Comp, discovered the fire around 7 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2024, as he was returning from one of his fields. Deanna received a call, along with the rest of her family, that she was needed on the farm to help relocate the cattle.
About 1,100 cows were sent to 11 dairies in Ohio and Pennsylvania; Deanna helped coordinate the transport of her family’s herd, recording the names of the drivers who came to pick up cows, their phone numbers and where they were taking them. She worked all through the night and into the next morning, nearly deciding to go home before the last of the herd left.
“My heart couldn’t do that, so I was like, ‘No, I’m gonna stay and help ‘till they’re all gone,’” Deanna said.
After receiving an early-morning call from his close friend Ken Rufener, who had agreed to house some of Comp’s cows at his farm, Congress Lake Farms in Mogadore, Ohio, Daniel reluctantly made the 80-mile trek to Comp Dairy Farm in Dorset, Ohio.
“I told him I did not want to go because we were just so busy (at Duma Meats). Not that I don’t want to help people, but we were really busy at the time. I was irritated the whole way there. But then, that’s where me and Dea met,” Daniel said.
Pushing 30 hours without sleep, covered in cow manure, Deanna approached Daniel’s truck and asked for his name.
“So, Daniel said his name like, ‘Uh, I’m Daniel Duma,’ like duh. I’m like, ‘Sweet, cool, man. I don’t know what that means, but all right,’” Deanna said.
But she was intrigued by the confident cowboy, and he was enamored with her.
He lives ‘in my heart’
In the weeks following the fire, Deanna juggled her career as a travel nurse, graduate school and helping out on her family’s farm. She traveled over 90 miles one way to work the night shift in Akron Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, while she was enrolled in classes at Kent State University to become a pediatric nurse practitioner. She had more than enough on her plate, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the cows or Daniel.
Deanna realized Kent State was only 20 minutes away from Congress Lake Farms, a couple of weeks after the fire, and decided to visit her family’s cows after an exam.
When she arrived, Rufener was extremely kind and welcoming. He took her back to the barn to check on her cows, and she was grateful for everything he’d done for her family.
“They were doing great. It was awesome to see, and just thanking him in person,” she said.
Rufener also told her not to worry about hauling the cattle home because someone had already offered to take them back when the time came. Deanna couldn’t stop the question that inevitably came next.
“Do you mind me asking his name just so we know, when the time comes?” she said.
His response was Daniel Duma, and Deanna thought, “Oh, here we go again.”
After she found out Daniel volunteered to bring her cows home, she reached out to him on Facebook to thank him and ask if she could stop by his family’s business, Duma Meats, to drop off Comp Dairy Farm T-shirts as a thank you. Daniel told her she was welcome anytime and offered a prayer for her family.
The moment she walked in on Nov. 5, 2024, Daniel greeted her and took her on a tour around the market. She stayed for hours, ate cheeseburgers and talked to Daniel about everything from her beliefs to her goals. When she left, she called her mom and told her, “I just met the guy I’m going to marry.”
The connection was unique for Daniel, too. He couldn’t explain the feeling he got the first time he met Deanna, but he knew it was special. He knew he was drawn to her. Within the first three minutes of talking to her when she stopped at his family’s market, he knew he loved her.
“We just knew. I don’t know how to explain it, but (it was) just natural. We talked about everything,” he said.
Daniel asked Deanna if she knew Jesus, and more specifically, “Where does he live?”
“In my heart,” Deanna said.
With her response, Daniel immediately saw a future with Deanna, despite their busy schedules, the individual paths they were on and the distance between them.
“We were so close for so long and never met, but then the fire happened and the Lord had plans,” Deanna said.
Last winter, Daniel and Deanna traveled the 80 miles back and forth to see each other as much as they could. Deanna would often stop at Duma Meats on her way to work to see him, and Daniel wasn’t reluctant to make the long drive to Dorset anymore, even in the snow.
“An hour and 30 minutes away is a long trip, but I guess we didn’t really think about that,” Daniel said.
As their relationship progressed quickly, their families supported them and wanted to make their own introductions. Daniel went hunting with the Comps after Thanksgiving and drove up to spend Christmas with them. After the Comps’ Christmas celebration, Deanna rode back with Daniel to meet his family — his parents, four siblings and 14 nieces and nephews — for the first time.
“My family knew (I loved you) right away when I brought you into the house,” Daniel said.
Daniel dated Deanna for four months before he proposed to her on Valentine’s Day.
“We didn’t date that long, did we?” he said, with a smile, as his wife continued to recount their love story.
A leap of faith
Before she met Daniel, Deanna didn’t see marrying a farmer in her future, as much as she loved the farm. She was 28 years old, six years into her nursing career and four classes away from finishing graduate school. It didn’t seem like it was in the cards for her, but she never ruled out the possibility.
“We both kind of have farming in our blood,” she said.
She grew up as the fifth generation on her family’s dairy farm with her brother and sister. She understands the sacrifices farming requires well, after watching her dad milk cows three times a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. She knew she’d have to make sacrifices for Daniel, and her whole life changed when she decided to spend it with him.
“I moved an hour and a half away. I’m not nursing. I’m not going to grad school. I’m doing something completely different,” Deanna said.
When she started having serious conversations with Daniel about getting married and moving in together over winter break, she decided to take a semester off from school.
“I took the semester off, and we literally, in that semester off, got engaged and started planning a wedding,” she said.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was quitting school, but what she got in return meant a lot more to her.
“My biggest dream has always been to have a family: get married, have a family, have kids and raise my kids. I felt like this is actually happening, and right now, other things can wait,” she said.
When her nursing contract with Akron Children’s Hospital ended after three years in May, Deanna started helping Daniel. Together, they own and operate Duma Ranch Burger Dispatch, a food truck Daniel started on his own in July 2024, and they help out at Dume Meats. They also raise cattle to supply the food truck and market on their farm, Duma Ranch, in Mogadore, Ohio.
“The farming lifestyle is something that we both enjoy. And, although sometimes it would make more sense for us just to focus on the store or the burger truck, and farming is just one extra thing to do, it’s like neither one of us is willing to give it up,” Deanna said.
Daniel delivered on everything he promised Deanna he would provide for her. Together, they made the life they both wanted a reality.
“He is the kindest. He would give anybody the last penny, the shirt off his back. I know people say that about people, but I’m not kidding you. He will just give and give and give,” she said.
The couple was married on Sunday, July 6, in front of family and friends under a beautiful blue sky at 1885 Farms in Navarre, Ohio. Their ceremony included a heartfelt retelling of the love story they were lucky enough to experience.
After the wedding, Deanna moved into the house Daniel bought in his early 20s — a home he’d promised to buy as a boy, baling hay on the property. Their driveway is flanked by barns on either side, with a third barn on the property, and a few years ago, Daniel purchased the farmland next door, giving them room to grow.
“I don’t think that we’ll go anywhere. I think we’ll probably stay where we are, but we might just have to add on a couple of rooms because we plan on having lots of kids,” Deanna said.
Together, they began to dream of the family they wanted, and soon after, it became more than a dream. Deanna got car sick one day early in September, so Daniel took her home to take a pregnancy test. Overcome with excitement, she handed him the positive test and simply said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t plan on telling you this way!”
They announced Deanna’s pregnancy on Oct. 16, and she’s due on May 10, which is fittingly Mother’s Day.
“Our love story is a testament to faith, hope and the incredible ways life can surprise us,” Deanna wrote in the recap of their love story that they told at their wedding.
