In the Matter of Marriage of O'donnell-Lamont and Lamont

Father appeals from a judgment that awarded custody of his two children to their maternal grandparents, the parents of father’s deceased former wife. We reverse.

We state the facts as we find them on our de novo review, in which we are assisted by the trial court’s discussion in its letter opinion. Father and mother were married in December 1991 and had two children, Taryn, who .was born in September 1992, and Seaira, who was bom in January 1996. Early in their marriage they lived in the Detroit Lake area, near grandfather. Later, after a falling out with grandfather and his then wife, they…