How reliable are your neighbors? If you had an emergency, would you be able to call on them? Would you trust them to take care of whatever needed taking are of?
One farmer, Lane Unhjem of North Dakota, had no choice in the matter.
Lane went through something really hard and scary.
You see, Lane was on his combine, a vehicle specifically made for harvesting farming fields, when it caught fire.
As Lane was trying to put out the fire on his combine, he suffered from a major heart attack.
I can’t imagine what must have been going through his mind in these crucial, terrifying moments.
You can see the aftermath of Lane’s combine fire below.
Luckily, Lane knew something was wrong and was rushed to Trinity Medical Center in Minot, North Dakota by neighbors helping with the fire. (That’s a journey of over 100 miles!) There, he was treated and made stable, but he wasn’t good as new. No, Lane is actually still recovering in the hospital today, nearly three weeks later!
Lane’s fields were left unharvested and his medical bills continue to build.
That’s a lot of stress for one person, considering harvesting those fields is Lane’s method of income!
Lucky for Lane, his neighbors and his community are pretty spectacular, and they look out for each other!
Forty farmers from Divide County came to harvest Lane’s field!
These farmers helped save Lane’s livelihood and took a massive burden off his shoulders. All from the goodness of their hearts!
In an update written on the GoFundMe page for Lane’s medical bills,
Lane’s daughter, Samantha Coates, wrote about the arduous journey her father and family were going through.
She thanked the people who made the journey easier, writing:
“From day one these forces have been the light in the darkness:
“The incredible community of Divide County that showed up to save my parents livelihood to harvest 1000 acres in one day.
“And then continued to support with food for the harvesters on that harvest bee plus helping bring in the soybeans a week later and hauling hay. Please know that it’s Your light that has illuminated a potentially very dark time for our family. […]
“What makes this even more remarkable is these incredible people did it because it was the right thing to do.
“Not for publicity or fame. But because when a person is in need this is what the people of Divide County & ND do: You step up & you take care of your neighbor. Helping others is the way of life here.”
Over 100 donations later, and the GoFundMe is at $5400 out of its $50,000 goal! That’s not bad considering it’s only been two weeks since the fundraiser started but there’s still a long way to go!
Now, how exactly did the community manage to harvest a thousand acres of land in only around seven hours?
Don Anderson was on the scene and posted some fantastic pictures of the community helping along with some updates on the situation. According to his post there were:
“Approximately 40 to 50 farmers, driving combines, pulling grain carts, driving semis and various other harvest related items, converged on the Unhjem farmstead and they will take care of harvest for Lane and his family today. I believe there was about a dozen combines involved. “
It certainly makes a lot more sense once you have numbers like that! Many hands make light work, after all!
I’m really blown away that this was not just one guy who put his good samaritan hat on for a day,
it was an entire community of people who were utterly selfless
and ready to spring to action for a long, hard day of work when it was needed!
Anderson continued in his post with some wise words:
“The Unhjems have a beautiful crop that will be safe in the bins today, and more importantly they have the comfort of knowing that they have a community of friends that are helping, praying and doing whatever they can to help them get through this tough time.
“What a great sense of pride we can all have knowing that when we face something like this, we’re not alone.
“Kudos to all those that helped today.”
Seriously, what a testament to the strength of the community bond in Divide County! You guys did great, and the Unhjems are undoubtedly eternally grateful for what you did.
We hope that Lane has a speedy recovery (he’s awake and doing a lot better now, with a long way to go still) and can get back to his normal life soon.
What a wholesome story of loving thy neighbor to perk your day up, right?
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