Ed Gulley, a friend and dairy farmer showed up at my writing class Saturday and signed up. He looked all fresh-scrubbed and neat, he even shed his grungy jeans and camoflauge shirts he wears around the farm when milking, he brought his first piece of writing and everyone in the class loved him and welcomed him. I told him he looked sweet enough to kiss. He told me not to try it.
His first story is harrowing, it recounts the day he found his son Jeremy who fell under the spiked bars of a manure spreading tractor and was nearly killed.
Jeremy sad that the feed for the cows had built up on the chains and bars and in the wagon and was causing it to run unevenly. He climbed over the side of the wagon with a pitchfork to loosen the feed that had built up. He got too close to the beaters and his sleeve was pulled into the beaters which pulled him over the top row and through the bottom row.
The “beaters,” wrote Ed, are nothing more than blunt spikes six inches long staggered across long metal tubes in the very front of the wagon.
Ed was scraping the manure in the barn right next to where Jeremy was working ” I wasn’t aware of it until I looked and saw the PTO (tractor) still running but nothing coming out of the wagon.I drove up to where he should have been standing and saw his feet and legs over the front of the wagon.
Just looking I knew he had to be freed from the beaters in order for him to breath as he was all twisted up. I told him this was going to hurt and it had to be done and tried to re-position him a bit so he could breath. ..I said I was going to go tell my mother, who lived int he farmhouse then, I told her to call 911 and I said I would be right back with a blanket.
So I went to do that and upon my return I heard him calling for me. When I looked further into the way he was now laying i could see that he had two of the beaters poking into his body; one on the side and one in his thigh. His left shoulder was very badly dislocated and looked to be positioned in the middle of his chest. Worst of all was the fact that his lower jaw appeared to be missing but yet he was able to talk to me, tell me he was sorry and that he loved me and h is mother. Help was arriving and we were able to get him untangled without causing further damage to him.”
I believe Ed saved his son’s life that day, it would have been different if someone like me had found him.
Jeremy was helicoptered to the Albany Medical Center Trauma Unit, he was operated on repeatedly for days, he was in an induced coma for more than a month. He has recovered from these awful wounds and is now working on a farm again. After the accident, he came home to recover and lived in the Gulley farmhouse for several years before resuming his own life.
Recently, a friend and neighbor was caught in his own manure spreader and is also in a coma in Albany Medical Center, the Gulleys – Carol and Ed – have been to see him and although he is not conscious they are urging him to understand that he will wake up.
Maria and I are going to see the Gulleys today I want to work on the piece with Ed and Maria wants to talk to Carol, whose own trauma at the near death of her son has been re-awakened and re-visited. Ed is feeling this as well, my heart goes out to them and their friends. Life is so hard for so many farmers, and so few people understand what their lives are like. Ed is hoping to explain that in his writing.
I am so grateful to have Ed in the class, he gives meaning to the idea of teaching writing and voice to people who are rarely heard outside of their own communities. i admire Ed greatly, he has many stories to tell and the heart to tell them well.
He will soon have his own blog up and running, I will be very proud to share it with you all.