"Don't give up": Renville County man is farming again months after paralyzing deer stand fall
RENVILLE COUNTY, Minn. -- Last fall, Renville County farmer Bill Voelz fell while working on a deer stand, and was paralyzed from the waist down. But after surgery and months of therapy, he finally got a chance to go home.
Despite new challenges, he vowed to return to farming this spring.
"Coming back home was so wonderful," Bill said.
The family farm is where Bill was meant to be. Nothing made him realize that more than months of rehab in the Twin Cities.
"I was very emotional, let's put it that way," he said. "It is just a different game now, working out of this chair."
But it wasn't enough just to return home. Bill told anyone who would listen that he wanted to be in his tractor by spring planting season. His wife Jean knew he meant it when he got into a skid loader last winter.
"I think it's gone really, really well. It's just to learn that new normal," Jean Voelz said. "I could hear something growling around outside, and I looked and he is just like busting through snow. Later that day he's like, 'I forgot how rough that skid loader is,' and he goes, 'It felt great.'"
He also said that the skid loader put a smile on his face "from one end to the other." Who knew heavy equipment could be so therapeutic?
The skid loader was just the start. After talking to other farmers with similar injuries, Bill and his family drove to Indiana to buy him a remote-controlled lift.
"I got out of the wheelchair to get up [in the tractor], but otherwise it will pick me up right out of the pickup and put me right in," he said. "This lift has been a lifesaver."
When Mother Nature finally cooperated, he was able to return to the fields he's loved and missed. He drives his tractor by using controls near the steering wheel.
"Being in a tractor is just so enjoyable, relaxing," he said.
Never one to back away from a challenge, Bill has been helping with fieldwork all spring, fulfilling a farmer's prophecy that he made six months ago.
"I know people handle things differently. But don't give up," he said. "Just keep on going. You'll get there."
He still goes to therapy two or three days a week, and he's hoping he'll be able to walk again one day. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help him with the costs to make farming a little easier.
