ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
In high school, Mitchell Ohnick and Laureen Bartel were in many of the same activities such as youth group.
Despite running in the same circle, the two never became close friends until later in life.
“We were friendly enough to each other, but she was dating her ex-husband at the time,” Ohnick said. “I was that kid who was still dealing with certain aspects of my life and the traumas I faced with being a bad boy character.”
After high school, Ohnick dealt with alcoholism, and he and Bartel began dating in 2022. He said despite the alcoholism, Bartel still loved him.
Ohnick and Bartel have been dating off and on since 2022, and in 2025, the couple at last opted to stay together. Ohnick admits though the love has only recently become official, he did have a crush on Bartel in high school, particularly in his senior year.
Ohnick said the recent period of the relationship has rekindled the flames, and he said the fire will not die out.
Ohnick is an over-the-road semi truck driver, while Bartel works as a Certified Nurse’s Aide at Liberal’s Wheatridge Park Care Center and at the Bartel Bake Shop in Meade.
“I grew up in the bakeries,” Bartel said. “My grandma and grandpa ran it for 49 years, and my dad and mom did it for about 20. Since my dad passed away, I’ve been helping my mom for about eight years.”
As the couple began dating again in 2025, Ohnick took Jesus to be his Lord and Savior in April, and he has now been sober for two years.
“I’ve been on that pathway of getting my life back together,” he said. “That helps with this whole thing. She’s been on a pathway of getting back with God and going to church together.”
“We wanted to put God first and make sure He’s at the center of everything we do,” Bartel said.
Ohnick said this is the key to the couple’s relationship, as well as all relationships. Recently, he proposed to Bartel with the help of the Liberal Police Department.
“I knew I wanted to marry her about a month ago, and I wanted it to be one of them Hallmark moments for her, something she was always going to remember,” he said.
Originally, Ohnick wanted to propose at church, which did not work, and with colder weather outside, a park was not a good idea for either he or Bartel. On the way home from a trip from California, the idea that would eventually happen occurred to him, though.
“I thought, what if I got the police department to pull me over and pull me out of the car, search me and give her that ‘Oh no, what’d you do?’ kind of moment,” he said. “I didn’t think she’d see that coming.”
As Ohnick expected, this is exactly what happened.
“I knew we were going to her company Christmas party, and I usually drive,” he said.
Ohnick called LPD Capt. Jeff Wade, who loved the idea. He said he had previously called the Seward County Sheriff’s office, but no one from that department was available at the time.
“They gave me the idea of contacting the police department. I did, and that’s when I talked to Capt. Wade,” Ohnick said.
Ohnick was instructed to call the watch commander the morning of the proposal, and he did so as he was making his way back to Liberal.
Having been up for 28 hours with little sleep, Ohnick did get a three-hour nap before going to Bartel’s house to get ready for the night, and from there, he said it was off to the races.
“They had to know what the car make was,” he said. “It turned into a hectic show trying to hide it from there on. It was a stressful two days.”
As expected, Bartel was quite surprised when the stop was made by LPD.
“There were three cop cars that were following us, and I was freaked out,” she said. “I remember asking him, ‘What did you do?’”
“And she had every right to ask that question,” Ohnick said.
Bartel said Ohnick was pulled out of the driver’s side of the car and taken to the passenger’s side where he was searched, and finding a ring box on his person, the cop asked Ohnick what was the purpose of the item.
“They played it off perfectly and professionally,” Ohnick said.
Bartel said one of the cops on scene had to calm her down.
“They were like, ‘Ma’am, it’s okay. You’re fine,’” she said. “I remember thinking ‘Huh-uh, this is not fine. Do you see my face? Do you know what fine means? This is my definition of this is not fine.’”
Bartel said she got out of the car, and her fear at this point was that she could potentially be taken to jail.
“Next thing I know, he grabs the ring box out of the cop’s hand,” she said. “He gets down on one knee. I said ‘Get up. What are you doing?’ Then he says, ‘I have loved you forever.’”
Ohnick said he had forgotten what he had planned to say to Bartel by the time he proposed.
“I think I said something about change I needed, and that’s about it,” he said.
“He said something like, ‘I have loved you my entire life,’” Bartel said. “I can’t even think of words right now or something to that extent. He pulled out the ring, and I remember saying ‘What?’ All I wanted to say was ‘Repeat that again.’”
Ohnick told Bartel he loved her and asked if she would marry him, and as she said yes, Bartel said her fears continued.
“You’ve got three cop cars, and another cop pulled up,” she said
With Ohnick spending a lot of time on the road, getting the proposal in place is something he referred to as a roller coaster.
“I didn’t want to go back to truck driving, but here we are, back on the road again,” he said. “I’m actually just a little under 4 million miles driven.”
Spending a lot of time on the road too has been tough for the couple, but Ohnick said with video chats, they make the relationship work.
Ohnick said getting the proposal together proved to be difficult, particularly with the night before he popped the question.
“It was still up in the air if I’d make it down there,” he said. “Trucking doesn’t always work out for the family life. You can’t plan anything at home because you may not make it there because of a load. They loaded me at midnight when I was supposed to be loaded at 7 at night, and I’d already been up since 4 in the morning. I told Laureen come hell or high water, I’m coming. I want to make it there. I made a promise to you. I made it. She didn’t know what the promise was, but I had the ring in my pocket.”
Ohnick said what pushed him to propose is the effect Bartel has on his mental state.
“I can have the world’s worst anxiety attacks sometimes, and she can calm me down by just speaking to me,” he said. “I couldn’t live without her smile, her blushing or her laugh. I just can’t imagine life without it now.”
Ohnick said he and Bartel had been talking about marriage for some time.
“One of our Bible studies got me thinking it’s time,” he said. “I believe as a Christian man, you date for a purpose. You date to marry. You don’t just go on dates to have fun. That’s the way God designed it. I said ‘Okay, I know she’s going to start guessing.’ She has been.”
Ohnick praised the work of the LPD for helping put the proposal together.
“They were dressed to the nines,” he said. “They weren’t in regular patrol gear. They were in ceremonial gear. They were professionally dressed, squared away, and they didn’t even have to do this. They even washed their cop cars for this, and I didn’t realize this until after the pictures.”
Once Bartel said yes, police officers joined in the celebration with a blaring of sirens. Ohnick said the proposal was an amazing experience, and he said the rest of the night paled in comparison.
“Then we went to the company party that turned out to be boring,” he said.
Ohnick thanked the law enforcement for making the night a great one for he and Bartel.
“I got to propose to my best friend and the woman I love, and they gave me an opportunity to give her a memory she’ll always remember for the rest of her life,” he said.
Naturally, Bartel said she was completely shocked as the events of the night were unfolding.
“I couldn’t string two words together at the moment,” she said. “It was so crazy. I almost wanted to have him repeat it. It was the most amazing surprise ever.”
Ohnick said Bartel seemed to have some idea that something was happening, but she could not figure out exactly what it was.
“On the way to the party, I saw there was at least one cop behind us,” Bartel said. “I kept trying to distract myself. I didn’t want to get stopped.”
Ohnick said keeping the proposal a secret proved to be difficult for him.
“I can’t play poker with her because she’ll take my shirt,” he said. “She can read me like a book.”
In the end, however, Ohnick said it all worked out, and he called it a blessed event thanks to the work of the LPD.
“These guys will always be in our lives for this and will always be a part of this memory,” he said.
As the officer and Ohnick were talking, Bartel said she tried to open her window to listen to the conversation, but she could not hear what was being said.
Bartel said it took her less than 30 seconds to say yes to Ohnick’s proposal.
“I had to process it through my brain,” she said.
Ohnick said this was just long enough for him to think about what would happen if Bartel’s answer had been no.
“If she would’ve said ‘We have to talk,’ I would’ve been broken,” he said.
Ohnick said the unique proposal took a lot of effort and brainstorming with his friends to pull off.
“I was a zombie by the time I pulled up to the truck stop,” he said. “It was a lot of effort at that point, but it’s a labor of love. You know you want to spend the rest of your life with that particular person. Why not go through that labor? Make it special for them.”
As for a wedding date, the couple has not set one yet.
“We’re thinking about a date, but I’m not for sure yet,” Bartel said. “We’re still up in the air on that.”
“It’s about location,” Ohnick said. “We’re trying for a particular date of July 3, but with our schedules, it’s kind of hard. I’ve got an idea of shooting off fireworks when she says ‘I do.’ She wants an outdoor wedding, and I think that’d be cool. It all depends on what God wants at that time.”
“If it rains, we need another location too,” Bartel said.
Both Ohnick and Bartel are excited to begin their lives together as man and wife, no matter what the date.
“It’s all I think about every night,” Ohnick said. “It gives me hope and happiness.”
