Zach Zarembinski fell in love with Isabelle Richard over a head of lettuce.
It happened in October 2024 at a restaurant in Lakeville. Richard ordered a salad that “came out looking like a head of iceberg lettuce, and she didn’t complain,” he said.
“She just started eating,” he said. “She’s so authentic. She doesn’t have a closed face that has to be revealed over time. She’s just herself. That’s rare.”
Even rarer are the circumstances surrounding how Zarembinski, 25, of Apple Valley, met Richard, 23, of Lakeville.
They arrived at Regions Hospital in St. Paul in 2018, nine days apart, after they had each suffered a near-fatal brain injury: Zarembinski, injured in a football game, spent nine days in a coma at Regions; Richard, who nearly died in a car crash, spent 2½ months in a coma at the adjacent Gillette Children’s Hospital.
Zarembinski learned about Richard when her mother came to the press conference announcing his release. The couple met in person in February 2019 when Zarembinski came to Richard’s hospital room after she regained consciousness. They met again last year and began dating.
Last month, they got engaged at the place where it all began: Regions Hospital. They plan to marry next fall.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it? People say it’s just like a Hallmark movie,” Zarembinski said. “We’re so lucky that we met each other.”
He gave hope
Zarembinski was 18 and a senior all-state nose tackle on the football team at Hill-Murray High School in Maplewood, dreaming of playing football in college, when he suffered a massive brain bleed on Oct. 27, 2018, on the sideline of a Hill-Murray football game.
Senior members of the Hill-Murray High School football team celebrate a Mass for Zach Zarembinski on Nov. 1, 2018, while Zarembinski remained in a medically induced coma. (Scott Takushi / Pioneer Press)
Zarembinski took himself off the field during the 28-0 loss to St. Paul Johnson in the Class 4A, Section 3 semifinal and collapsed shortly after. He underwent a craniotomy and was placed in a medically induced coma for nine days and spent 13 days in the ICU.
Nine days later, on Nov. 5, 2018, Richard, a sophomore at Farmington High School, was driving to her job as a cashier at Hy-Vee in Lakeville when she swerved to avoid being hit by a driver who had crossed the center line.
A photo showing the Jeep Liberty that Isabelle Richard was driving on Nov. 5, 2018, when she swerved to avoid being hit by a driver who had crossed the centerline near the intersection of Dodd Road and Franchise Way in Lakeville. Richard suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent almost four months at Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. (Courtesy of Esther Wilzbacher)
She smashed her Jeep Liberty into a tree — going about 60 mph — near the intersection of Dodd Road and Franchise Way. Richard, who had just turned 16, had to be cut out of the vehicle. She suffered a massive head injury, underwent a craniotomy and spent almost four months at Gillette.
Richard’s mom, Esther Wilzbacher, was watching TV in her daughter’s hospital room at Gillette on Nov. 16, 2018, when she saw a press conference featuring Zarembinski, who had been released from Regions three days earlier. She realized the press conference was being broadcast live from the lobby of Regions.
Wilzbacher, her husband, Brad, and her sister, Elizabeth Brimer, ran to catch the last few minutes in person.
“Right after my press conference, I looked at Esther,” Zarembinski said. “I knew there were other people around, but I only fully remember Esther. Her eyes were just full of tears. I had no idea who she was. Not a clue. I saw her crying, and I said, ‘What’s going on?’”
Wilzbacher explained what had happened to her daughter and that she was in a coma. She told Zarembinski that he gave her hope.
“For whatever reason, I just kept saying, ‘She’s going to be OK. She’s going to be fine,’” he said.
Mothers connect
Esther Wilzbacher met Tracy Zarembinski, Zach’s mother, at the press conference, and the two connected on Facebook.
Tracy Zarembinski also followed Richard’s progress on CaringBridge — and kept her son apprised over the next few months.
“She was like, ‘You know, you’re so lucky. Remember that girl? She’s still in the hospital,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘She’s still in the hospital? … She just woke up?’ My mom said, ‘Hey, you should go try to meet her,’ and my mom started pushing.”
The pair met in Richard’s hospital room on Feb. 18, 2019. A photo of the two of them shows Zarembinski, wearing a Pioneers jersey, crouching next to Richard’s hospital bed. Both are smiling.
Zach Zarembinski and Isabelle Richard met Feb. 18, 2019, a few months after their brain injuries, in Richard’s hospital room. (Courtesy of Zach Zarembinski)
“I said a couple of kind words to Isabelle, and that was it for almost six years,” he said. “But my mom will tell you that in the back of her mind she was thinking, ‘It would be cool if they got together one day.’”
Five and a half years later, on Sept. 26, 2024, Richard’s neurosurgeon gave her the final “all-clear,” and Esther Wilzbacher shared the news on Facebook.
“Thank you for sharing her beautiful progress all the time,” Zach Zarembinski wrote in response. “God does amazing things for great people. Isabelle, your smile shines bright! I pray you continue to stay amazing and fight the good fight!!! We should connect sometime soon!”
Wilzbacher suggested that the families get together and sent Zarembinski her phone number. Two weeks later, they gathered at Gary’s Supper Club in Lakeville.
‘I think I really like you’
Richard said it wasn’t love at first sight for her. “I saw potential, but I just, like, wasn’t really in that mindset yet,” she said.
Said Zarembinski: “I didn’t go in there expecting to get a phone number. I didn’t go in there expecting anything other than to congratulate her on her recovery.”
But as dinner progressed, Zarembinski said he realized he wanted to see her again. Richard’s mother suggested the two connect on Snapchat, he said.
“We started chatting more and more, and I started to like her more,” he said. “I’m like, ‘I think I really like you.’”
Their first date occurred at Panino’s in North Oaks on Oct. 28, 2024. Zarembinski was living in Shoreview at the time, and Richard drove up to meet him.
“I was worried she was going to be a ‘four forks’ girl, where everything had to be perfect,” he said. “But she was OK getting messy. She was a girl that I felt comfortable around — and she felt the same about me.”
Their second date was going to a Sunday service at Richard’s church, ZOE Church in Burnsville, and then out for lunch. Their faith is the foundation of their relationship, he said.
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“I was relieved 100% because Isabelle shares that same faith with me that I have with Jesus,” he said. “Our values are aligned. I grew up with Catholic traditions, so there was a little bit of difference there, but, honestly, we have the same faith.”
Richard credits Jeremiah 29:11 with aiding in her recovery, and she can quote the Bible verse from memory: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
“That is engraved in her heart, in her mind,” he said.
Richard said she thinks she fell in love with Zarembinski on their third or fourth date. “I can’t really remember that far back,” she said. “I just love that he’s not perfect, because I’m not perfect. I kind of need someone that’s not perfect. I love that he loves God just as much as I do. I would say that’s a big one.”
Left-brain, right-brain
Zarembinski says he practiced for hours to make the heart sign with his fingers with Richard. The newly engaged couple hope for a September 2026 wedding. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
Zarembinski prides himself on doing all of the little things she loves. He makes her dinner, buys her flowers, opens her car door, makes sure her car is regularly washed, and buys her favorite treats.
Last week, he bought her a package of Goldfish Snoopy Peppermint Cocoa Graham Crackers.
“She said, ‘Why did you buy mint Goldfish? You hate mint,’” he said. “I looked at her and said, ‘I bought them for you!’”
Richard helps clean his apartment, shops for groceries and does the dishes. She tickles him when he’s in a bad mood — “and when he’s not in a bad mood,” she said.
“I love everything about him,” she said. “I love that he helps me with my finances. I’m not the best with money, and he’s really good at it. He’s really good at planning certain things. He’s just better on everything — everything that I’m not good at.”
Richard suffered right-side brain damage; Zarembinski suffered damage on the left side.
Richard doesn’t keep secrets and says what is on her mind, he said. “I’m so grateful for that,” he said. “I’m the same way. I can’t keep secrets. That’s just too hard. I had a brain injury. I forget what I even lied to you about last week, you know? So I’ll say, ‘If I lied, I’m sorry. Here’s the truth. This is what I remember.’ And she does the same thing to me.”
In a post published in September on Richard’s CaringBridge page, Esther Wilzbacher wrote that watching the couple’s relationship grow has been a blessing.
“Both still carry unique challenges from their TBIs, but here’s the beautiful part — their injuries were on opposite sides of the brain,” she wrote. “Where one is weak, the other brings strength. They balance and support one another in ways that only God could have orchestrated. They are both absolute miracles! Thank you Jesus!”
Podcast proposal
Zarembinski, who has worked as a supervisor at a fiber-optics construction company and as a door-to-door salesman, is looking for work. “Isabelle is always here for me in dark times,” he said. “She supports me along the way without hesitation or negativity. She’s willing to sacrifice buying material things so that we can still do the things that matter most to us.”
Richard, who works about 30 hours a week as a cashier at Hy-Vee in Lakeville, drives over to Zarembinski’s apartment each morning before work. The couple work out together in his apartment complex’s gym before going back to his apartment to make breakfast, he said.
“We push each other at least once every other week to run a 5K on the treadmill,” he said.
The couple is currently playing an Uno marathon – the first one to win 100 games has to forfeit a kiss and buy dinner. The score as of Thursday: Richard, 50; Zarembinski, 29.
Isabelle Richard reacts as her fiancé Zach Zarembinski hits her with a “draw four” card as the couple play Uno. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
“I try my best, but she’s just better at it,” he said. “We have fun. Honestly, we love to do everything together. There is not much we are willing to do separately.”
Their other major hobby is producing a podcast, “Hope in Healing,” that they launched together in July. “We want to share our testimony of the pain and suffering we went through and how we came out of it,” he said. “It is such a miracle to be alive, let alone share our lives together. We’re going to work on it slowly to where we interview people who have gone through pain and who need help healing or have come out of that already.”
Zarembinski arranged for the last episode of the podcast to be recorded on Nov. 3 at Regions Hospital. A few minutes into sharing their stories, Zarembinski told Richard he had a question.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
Their families and people who had cared for the couple at Regions and Gillette emerged from hiding to join the celebration in the lobby.
Erin Ingvalson, a speech language pathologist at Gillette, helped orchestrate the event, which included a huge red heart made of flowers and “Will You Marry Me?” written in neon.
“Oftentimes when we discharge kiddos, they kind of leave us, and we don’t get to see what happens with the rest of their lives and the successes that they are able to achieve,” Ingvalson said. “This was just really, really special.”
The couple is hoping for a September wedding. “Her birthday is on September 5th. Mine’s the 18th. If we could, it would be cool to do it in between the birthdays,” Zarembinski said.
Richard said she can’t wait to get married and move in together. “He just showed me the plan of the house he wants to build,” she said. “I’m excited for that.”
The couple would like to have three children. They already have names picked out: Selah, John and Noah.
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“I’m excited for just starting a life away from our families,” Zarembinski said. “Just paving a new path with Jesus and not having other people tell us what to do, because that’s been a lot of our lives for the last seven years. … When we become married as one, we’re going to be able to just make that path right down straight with Jesus.”
Zarembinski said Richard has helped him heal.
“I didn’t lose my mental capacity, but I have had pain and suffering over these last seven years,” he said. “Isabelle had a different journey. She doesn’t really remember the first six months. … I continue to bear the burden of stress and anxiety and hurt and pain, but she has none of that. She has none of the hurt. She doesn’t remember a lot of it, and she’s just so grateful for life. She shows up with a smile every single day. Every day I’m with her, I feel joy knowing she truly loves me.”
