The summer of 2011 I interned with Case IH in Racine, Wisconsin and at the beginning of that fall semester I thought that's where I would be headed for a job. Everything changed two days after Thanksgiving that year. I was at a Thanksgiving dinner with Josh's, my fiancé at the time-husband now, family. Since we were at dinner I had set my phone on silent and left it in my coat pocket. At one point I went to look at it and saw I had about a dozen missed calls and texts from my mom and sisters. I listened to the voicemail and read the texts to find out that my uncle Frank had been in a horrible accident. I immediately called my mother back and asked what was going on. She and my dad were headed to the hospital in Wichita that Frank was being air lifted to. Frank had gotten his sleeve caught in the PTO on the manure spreader. This got ahold of his arm and ripped off most of the skin and muscle on his left forearm. He was at the farm by himself at the time, which my dad still beats himself up about, but he called 911 and the ambulance came and got him. Going to the hospital was the scariest time of my life. We didn't know anything about what they would be able to do for Frank. All we knew was that he had lost a lot of blood and could possibly lose his arm or his life. Frank doesn't have a wife or kids of his own, and my sisters and I have always been like his kids. We grew up around him at the farm and he's been there for everything in our lives. He walked me down the aisle with my dad at my wedding.
Once we got to the hospital he was in surgery and they were bringing in a nerve specialist to see if they could save his hand. He was in surgery for about 6 hours that first day. They were able to save his hand and his arm by some miracle. He spent the next three and a half weeks in the hospital in and out of surgery. Frank underwent multiple muscle and skin graphs to build his forearm back up. Luckily he was able to come home 4 days before Christmas so we didn't have to have Christmas in the hospital. We were prepared if it came down to that though.
This tragedy was devastating for our family farm. Frank did most of the milkings at the time as well as numerous other chores. Since he was not able to be at the farm for months this left dad to do everything by himself. My sisters and I made a decision among ourselves that we would do everything we could to help dad keep the farm running. Aadrian and I were both in college at the time and Brenda was still in high school. She already helped out on the farm over the weekends, but obviously dad needed all the help he could get. From the time Frank got hurt I went home every weekend and Aadrian came home every weekend she didn't have a track meet. She was on a track scholarship. Since we were both in college we had about a month and a half off from school for Christmas break. We decided to spend every moment we could at the farm to help dad. We handled the majority of the milkings and helped out with whatever else was needed, including working pigs and calves.
Fast forward to March 2012 and Frank was finally allowed back at the farm, granted he couldn't do much because his arm was heavily bandaged and strapped down to his side. He had been a horrible patient during his time of physical therapy. Frank would show up at least once a day at the farm and dad would chase him away because he wasn't supposed to be there. That following spring he did a lot of the planting since driving a tractor is something he could do that the doctor was okay with. And today he is back to doing everything he could before the accident. His arm isn't as strong and it probably never will be, but it's a miracle that they were able to save it.
So long story short this is what led me to come back home to the farm. My last semester I was already coming home every weekend to help out and dad was relying heavily on me for a lot of things. It just made sense. After Frank got hurt I flushed all of my out of state job leads down the toilet and tried to find something closer to home. I found some things, but in reality I needed to be at the farm full time. I asked dad what he thought about it and almost two years later here I am. This is where I'm meant to be at this point and I am more than happy with it. I love being able to work with my two favorite farmers and I'm also able to be more involved with both of my sisters activities. This wasn't my original plan, but I think God put me here for a reason. I'm taking things day by day and seeing where God leads me.
Us with Frank this last Christmas. Two years after his accident!
Frank and dad walking me down the aisle almost one year after his accident. They clean up pretty good :)
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