Courage, defined

Every day we make choices. Most of the choices I make are inconsequential, like what to eat for lunch or what to wear. Some choices I have had to make in my life have been monumental (at least they were for me).  But I'd like to tell you about a man who made a decision on this day, 82 years ago that was not merely monumental, but for many, it was unbelievable.

In late November, 1932, the corn was still in the field in north-central Illinois. There was a trace of snow on the ground, but the crop was dry and needed to be harvested before the heavy snow of winter settled across the state. A young farmer, 26 by years, a veteran by farming standards, set out with his tractor pulling a mechanical corn picker.

The farmer was working alone in the cornfield when he stopped the tractor to pick out a husk caught in the gear. There was snow on the ground and his feet slipped, his arm plunging directly into the revolving rolls. The gear clutched his hand, mangled it, and started to pull his arm into the mechanism. The farmer gritted his teeth and shut his eyes.  He reached in his pocket with his right hand for his knife. He opened the blade with his teeth, and finally hacked away at the bone at the elbow. He shut off the motor and walked a mile to his brother's home. Climbing three fences en route, arrived to find no one there.  So he cranked the old-fashioned telephone and called his wife. "Send Dick with the car" he said.  "I'm hurt a little, but I'll walk up the road to meet him." The farmer, weary from his harrowing ordeal, found a long overcoat and draped it across his shoulders. He walked another half mile before he met his brother and his wife who took him to the hospital. The farmer had operated so skillfully upon himself, physicians said, that he lost little blood.  They predicted he'd be back farming in a few days.  "I hated to do it," the farmer said, "because I'll miss my arm. But it was cut it off or get killed.  So I cut."  Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania) 25 November, 1932

The story, an unbelievable act of courage and strength made the AP wire and was printed in newspapers across the country from Pennsylvania to California.

The farmer, was Archie Smith, and he was my Grandfather.  My Grandmother was pregnant at the time of the accident with the second of their eventual 5 children.  The baby girl, Susanne was born two months after the accident and died a few days after her birth.  My father wouldn't be born for another four years.   Some choices we make are inconsequential, some are monumental.

Dad & Grandpa

Grandpa would go on to farm for forty years after this accident.  Another accident with the same corn picker five years after the first took the four fingers on his remaining hand.  "Still the same gutsy fellow, he kept going." My grandma wrote in a short memoir. "He refused to get an artificial arm. Money was short then, the depression years, and he thought they cost too much money."

As we begin the Thanksgiving week, I am grateful for the courage of a young man, so many years ago, for his decisions, and by the grace of God, he survived that November day.   People have said that I'm strong, that I'm courageous for all that my body and mind have been through with my cancer treatment.  I give a nod to Grandpa and say thanks for passing on your genes old man.

May you all be blessed with love and peace this Thanksgiving week, and be careful out there.