SASKATOON – People in the Ogema area are rallying to keep a family’s farm running while the husband lies in a coma in a Regina hospital.
On Sept. 14, Dale Dunn was riding with three other farmers from the southern Saskatchewan town to farm meetings in Regina. On their way, they were in collision with a transport truck on the highway.
With her husband in a coma and three small children to care for, looking after the farm became an impossible task for Debbie Dunn.
“She’s got just too much other stuff to do right now,” said Dunn’s neighbor Darcy Iversen.
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Dunn is still in the intensive care unit of the Plains Health Centre. Others in the accident have since been released from hospital.
As soon as they heard the news of the tragedy, Dunn’s friends starting organizing ways to help out. Iversen and another friend, Bob Dunn, a third cousin to the injured man, knew they had to get the family’s harvest in.
Community at call
“In a small community like this everybody helps in a time of disaster,” said Iversen. “All we had to do was pick a date and tell them when to show up.”
More than 70 men and women turned out on Sept. 17 to harvest Dunn’s field and prepare meals for the volunteers. Seventeen combines and 15 grain trucks finished the harvest in eight hours.
The family also has a herd of cattle. Dunn, Iversen and other friends will divide the herd and care for them through the winter.
“It’s going to be a long road,” said Iversen, referring to the family’s recovery.
