Early on Friday afternoon our small town withstood two tragedies. Our neighbors at Far HIlls Farm lost their barn and store to a fire and our own Chris had a tragic accident in our woods. Our hearts go out to our neighbors and we continue to pray for Chris's recovery.
That day, Chris went into the woods to check on what he assumed to be a fire or snowmobile accident on our trail. He was riding the tractor and came across some trees across the trail. He was in the process of moving them and was hit in the face by a branch that sprung back with such force that it fractured most of the bones in his face, shattered his nose and left him with a large open wound on his forehead. Chris's vision went black for what he remembers to be about 4-5 minutes at which time he walked aimlessly toward what he thought to be home. When his vision returned, he realized that not only had he walked away from home but that could not walk himself the half-mile back to the farm in this condition. Miraculously, he followed his tracks home and was immediately met in our driveway by our brother-in-law Tim and 911 was called.
Becasue of the fire on County Road, most of our Walpole emergency vehicles were on the scene of that tradgedy so we did have to wait for assistance. Upon arrival of the EMT workers, it was decided that helicopter transport was necessary. The helicopter from UMASS Medical Center in Worcester landed at Alyson's orchard after our town trucks plowed them a landing pad.
The rest is history but you can imagine how scary it was for Chris and all of us! From here on out he remains in stable condition but will require an extensive 12+ hour surgery to reconstruct his face and repair his sinuses. We are amazed at the outporing of positive energy, financial help, food, farm help and childcare offers that we have received over the past few days.
Chris is resilient and I can already tell that even after this traumatic brush with death, he will come out of this stronger, more self-confident, wiser and more powerful. Everyone around us has shown their resiliency which is so important for Chris to see as well as our children to witness. If anything positive can come out of this trauma I can only hope that he experiences "posttraumatic growth" and continues his positive outlook on life which is why so many people are infectiously drawn to him. I think resiliency is what is most important right now so I am counting on myself and my family and friends to show their resiliency as well. It's going to be a long road to recovery but it can be a positive one!
Thank you all for your support and continued positive thoughts and prayers. Chris is in amazing spirits considering. :-)
Caitlin
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