October 7 2007 started as a normal day on the farm. It was a sunny day and VERY hot. I was happily driving our air conditioned 2590 Case with a grain cart on it unloading into the truck, but pretty soon all heck broke lose
My dad and I were on our last field everything had ran smoothly all day and we were almost finished and my dad drove into a wet spot in his 9500 John Deere Combine and sunk instantly.
My grandma came to the rescue with a chain and tow rope. So I was sent into the combine to drive in reverse while my dad pulled with the tractor. No luck.
My grandpa came with another truck and some how in pure fate he got in the tractor and my dad got in the combine.
As my dad told my grandpa to put it full throttle and as fast in reverse as he could go, he was telling us a story of a farmer who just barely survived when a chain snapped and came through the cab and missed his head by 3 inches.
As my dad got in the combine and my grandpa dropped the tractor into gear, I had a bad felling. SNAP went the chain. I don’t know if it was shock, but it happened in slow motion. The chain went through the cab of the tractor and knocked him out in a mess of blood and broken glass. His head rocking back and forth on the window, for about two minutes… it was horrendous it looked like it killed him (which we all thought it did). As I let out a blood curtailing scream for my dad the tractor jackknifed in reverse and started spinning around in circles. Digging a large circle in the soft earth where the one tire was on the ground.
I don’t know why but after I screamed all I could do is run my legs shaking and wanting to stop working. As my dad was franticly calling 911, I could already here the sirens. Every body was yelling but I couldn’t understand a word of it.
As my grandma got out to the road she parked the truck and started hyperventilating. Just as she stopped the truck my legs gave out and I couldn’t believe what I had seen as we sat there thinking my grandpa was dead. My Grandma Who has been divorced from my Grandpa for over twenty years started to pray he was all rite. “Oh God Please let him be alive.”
Suddenly a miracle my Grandpa came to while it was spinning and slowly pushed the throttle down until it died. “I’m so hot get me out side I need some air,” said my grandpa. So through the broken glass and blood, he got up. Since the tractor was up in the air my dad got down on his knee so he could use it as a step… AND HE WALKED OVER TO THE AMBULANCE.
We didn’t know he was ok until ten minutes after it happened when one of the cops came up to us and told us he was alive, he looked pretty rough but he was alive. After 5 near death experiences he is very thank full to God.
I think the whole experience has brought our family closer together and made us much more appreciative for the better things in life. Know we regularly have lunch together and I help him fix up his old bobcat. I think he finally realizes how fragile and shot life is. As my Grandpa says “there’s no reason I should be alive…… and I thank God for that”.