| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Alee |
Posted - Oct 07 2011 : 3:35:11 PM
#65279;it is amazing what the rural community can do for each other when there is a need!
MOLT — The obituary hadn’t even appeared in the newspaper yet, but Bob Chambers’ neighbors already knew the farmer’s 25-year-old daughter, Nickie Chambers, had taken her own life in her father’s home, where she and her 4-year-old daughter had been staying.
Chambers discovered his daughter and a last will and testament placing 4-year-old Roselynn Chambers in his custody. He also had 900 acres of wheat to harvest, which Bill Linger, a friend and neighbor, decided the community could handle.
“It only took about a half hour to get everybody rounded up,”Linger said, pulling the cellophane from a sandwich of ham and lettuce on white bread and joining nine other hands gathered for lunch around a flatbed pickup. “Not one person I called said ‘no.’ ”
This was no small favor. A hodgepodge of combines, grain carts and semi trucks encircled the crew, which at midweek numbered 18 if you included Wendy Reinholz, who baked homemade buns for the volunteers and delivered them to the field still warm on the oven sheet.
There was Bill Downs and his grandson, William, the youngest of the volunteers by a good 40 years. An American flag waved from the mast of the Downs’ red Case combine. The flag seemed to fit the sentiment of the men around the truck that helping Chambers was part of the rural code. There was Charles McFarland and his son Ted, Roger Haugrud I and Roger II. Wes and Sue Leuthold and Al Nordahl, to name a few.
“Yes, Allen. It’s too early for beer,” Linger quipped as his big Norwegian neighbor pried open the lid of a large cooler stocked with bottled water.
Bob Chambers usually harvests this field northwest of Molt by himself, shutting down his John Deere combine only long enough to load his truck with grain and drive it to a bin a mile away on the edge of Molt-Rapleje Road. The field is owned by Jordan and Jordan Partnership, a venture started by Chambers’ mother and stepfather several years ago.
At top speed, Chambers can harvest about 80 acres a day. With a funeral to plan and his daughter’s affairs to get in order, a harvest of 10 or more days was just too much.
Chambers had to explain to 4-year-old Roselynn what happened to her mother. He told her Nickie was too sick to go to the hospital and had to go with Jesus instead. He said Roselynn took the explanation to mean Jesus had taken her mother to the hospital.The grandfather and granddaughter will for years be working toward a functional explanation.
The tragedy caught Chambers completely off guard.
“She was always someone that others turned to when they were in pain, you know?” Chambers said. “She took care of everyone else.”
Nickie was someone who locals might know from Laurel’s Owl Café, where she used to waitress. She also worked summers at an old-time photography shop in Cody, Wyo. The sepia-toned photos of Roselynn in antique Western costume in Cody are really cute, Chambers said. Nickie was good about keeping the grandfather well supplied.
A memorial fund for Roselynn has been set up at United Bank of Laurel. Chambers’ neighbors are hopeful the family gets the help it needs.
It seemed like a long time since farmers came together in Molt to harvest a neighbor’s entire crop. When the question came up this week, and the baseball caps came off revealing a dozen grey scalps, no one could remember such a harvest in their lifetime. Some offered anecdotes relayed by their parents, or grandparents, or stories retold in the news.
“These days if somebody gets help it seems like a miracle,”farmer Charles McFarland said. “But it does seem to happen in rural places like this.”
Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/article_9d297dfa-10de-5722-8770-a8c6cff9664f.html#ixzz1a8cgnSWA
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com
www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com
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| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| ksharp |
Posted - Oct 08 2011 : 09:25:54 AM
Such a wonderful sense of community! Sadly it is almost lost in our society. A good lesson for all of us to learn and practice. Thanks for the posting.
Kathee
"The crazy,dancing,goat lady." - #3462 |
| Bear5 |
Posted - Oct 08 2011 : 08:56:08 AM
Thanks for sharing such a sad but beautiful story. Good people are still out there, that is good to know.
Marly
"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." Elisabeth Kurler-Ross |
| wild daisy |
Posted - Oct 08 2011 : 08:01:36 AM
I too read this story in the paper this week. What amazing place we live in. This type of community is all around us.
Last fall there was a sugar beet farmer in the area that was very ill with cancer. His community also took charge and harvested his crop so that he could be with his family and concentrate on getting his cancer treatments. That is thinking of others and not just ourselves.
These types of stories give me cause to try harder in giving back to others in my community.
Madelynne
www.johnandmadelynne.blogspot.com |
| Penny Wise |
Posted - Oct 08 2011 : 07:25:05 AM
alee....thank you for bringing this to us!!!! there are still wonderful folk in the world.......
Farmgirl # 2139
proud member of the Farmgirls of the Southwest Henhouse
~*~ counting my pennies and biding my time; my dreams are adding up!~*~ |
| Penny Wise |
Posted - Oct 08 2011 : 07:24:51 AM
alee....thank you for bringing this to us!!!! there are still wonderful folk in the world.......
Farmgirl # 2139
proud member of the Farmgirls of the Southwest Henhouse
~*~ counting my pennies and biding my time; my dreams are adding up!~*~ |
| craftystranger |
Posted - Oct 07 2011 : 4:12:33 PM
Thanks for sharing, Barbara
Don't forget to laugh! |
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