Community helps local farmer in hospital
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LEWISVILLE — Neighbors came to the rescue Monday morning for a local family in dire need of help on their farm.
Sixty-year-old Terry Ellsworth, a farmer in Lewisville, suffered a brain aneurysm sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. At the same time, his wife, Mary, was in the hospital battling kidney stones. Terry was airlifted to Salt Lake City, where he currently remains, and Mary was discharged from her hospital stay Friday.
But the family’s farm had crops that needed to be harvested, and time was ticking. While some people might be solely focused on their health after going through something like Terry did, his brother David said Terry’s concern was on the straw bales that needed to be loaded off his farm.
“They had the straw baled out in the field,” David said. “I told Mary I would take care of it, so I called some neighbors Saturday and Sunday. They all said, ‘Just let us know (how we can help).'”
Fourteen people — including local farmers, a mortician and police officer — showed up Monday morning to help load the bales of straw off of the Ellsworths’ property.
“It took us just two and a half hours to haul out 330 or 340 bales,” David said.
The straw had to get sent off to its destination in a certain amount of time because it needed to be watered, David said.
He was touched that community members, especially those with farms who are busy with their own harvests, took the time to lend a hand.
“We feel so blessed to live with like-minded community members that pull together and focus on what really matters,” said Wayne Brown of Brown’s Dairy, who helped the Ellsworths.
David said Terry’s the type of person who doesn’t ask for help. After seeing a group of people come together with one goal in mind, he said it speaks volumes about Terry as a person.
“Everybody I called said, ‘He (Terry) would come down to help us (if we needed it),” David recalls. “When you can get not only the farmers (to help) but other people that Terry’s affected their lives, it’s pretty cool.”
Nobody can be with Terry in the hospital right now due to COVID-19, but David said as of Monday morning, doctors believe his recovery is looking well.
