It was the afternoon on January 3, 1975 and I was getting the office ready so I could leave for the weekend. I was flying my cessina 172 from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota to Grand Rapids, Minnesota for an annual and a check up and left the office about 3 p.m. I was flying to meet my wife and 3 children at Grand Rapids as they left before I did and were to pick me up after I left the plane there. I can remember filing my flight plan and hoping in the plane. I gassed up and can remember reaching back and locking my door and heading down the runway. That's the last I can remember until about Feb.-march of 1975 as upon lift off I crashed in a frozen lake ( Brandy). There was a front coming in from the west and I headed into it and banked to the northeast to go to Grand Rapids. After climbing up about 1500 feet I was told I got vertigo and saw white snow, white clouds and began to descend rapidly. As I was banking to the east when I hit the ice I was at a 45% angle and the plane hit the ice, I was thrown out of the plane still strapped to my seat thought the bottom of the plane. I guess I hit and bounce some 185 feet from the plane still strapped in my seat and landed upright on the ice. The concussion of landing at that speed broke almost all the bones in my body. I guess my pelvis was broken in 27 places, my hips were broken and my ankles were sheared off, hanging by skin and had to be pinned on. All the internal organs were thrown up when I hit the ice and bleeding was extensive. I received many pints of blood and was not suppose to make it. I was on the ice strapped to my seat sitting upright when a farmer went out to check his cattle about 4 p.m.( it was getting dark) and he saw a black clump on the ice and a shell of an airplane so he called the ambulance and they came out to get me. When they got there the ice was unsafe and they would come out to get me. A local sheriff ( Danny Morrison) then jumped in his pickup and made a dash for me, I guess he was breaking the ice as he was coming to get me. He picked me up and put me in his pick up and headed for shore. He transfer me to the ambulance and took me to the hospital. I guess I died twice and had to be brought back by CPR. After I was in the hospital they thought I had died and put a sheet across my body for the mort ague. A nursed Vicki Haverkamp, took the sheet off to see who was under it and saw I was still breathing , so they rushed me to Fargo to the hospital where I spent form Jan3-July 3 healing. I was told I would never walk again as stubborn as I was decide I would so I took that summer of 1975 strengthen my arms and legs and in 1982 I was pitching for a church team and running the bases, not pretty, but adequate.

Sometime when I was in Dakota hospital ( the first hospital) in Fargo I overheard ( subconsciously) that I would never walk again. That night I tried to get out of bed and go home--Off course with 2 broken legs, broken ankles and all of me in a mess, I rolled off the bed and fell on the floor. After that they had put a belt on me. When I crashed in my airplane I weighed about 195 lbs and after hearing that I quit eating as if I was going to be in a wheelchair my whole life I didn't want to live. When I can home in July ,I weighed about 129 and had a long way back to normality. I exercised a lot and built up my arms and chest so I could use the lofstand crutches to get around. That summer of 1975 I fenced in the pasture with the tractor and my determination to walk again. I started to walk a little with out my crutches and after several months I threw the crutches away for good. Even today I do not walk properly but walk. I was 37 years old with a wife, 3 children and a farm and I could not see spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair. We had no insurance either for the wreck of the airplane or medical bills and this was another burden I had to overcome. After totaling the debt I had occurred from the accident ( this was many months later) I added them up--Like 8 doctors, 2 hospitals etc. I figured I could pay them back after years if I did not have intrest to pay. So I contacted each debtor and agreed to pay the pricipal without intrest until paid. Everyone agreed to that and after 5 years It was all paid in full.

My orthopedic surgeon was fantastic, he put all my bones back together as best as they could be and he helped me obtain normality in my life. But when a doctor tells you "you might never walk again" then if I would have been submissive to his suggestion, I might never have walked again. Doctors in a particular field are where they are meant to be, but giving advise to someone dictating the future because what the assume might happen could be damaging to his or her recovery. I knew that my future was not meant to be in a wheel chair or on crutches, so my strong will lead me to recovery.