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Small Indiana Farming Community Comes Together To Help Grieving Grandfather Who Suddenly Lost His Four-Year-Old Granddaughter

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 14:31 PST, Nov 21, 2016

A small farming community in Connersville, Indiana has come together to help a grieving man cope with the sudden death of his four-year-old granddaughter.

According to FOX59, Steve Wollyung was preparing to harvest his remaining 112 acres of crops on his farm on November 5, when an unimaginable tragedy occurred.

The Connersville, Indiana grandfather’s four-year-old granddaughter was playing in the grain wagon when she became trapped. First responders were able to remove the four-year-old from the grain wagon and airlift her to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Tragically, the Indiana four-year-old later died from her injuries.

Tara Henry, a longtime friend of this Connersville, Indiana family, heard what had happened the next day and called Steve’s wife, Carmen, to ask about the harvesting. Tara wanted to know if they had finished harvesting their crops yet. Carmen told her friend they still had a little more than 100 acres to harvest and they were not sure how they were going to get everything harvested.

This longtime friend of this Connersville, Indiana family wasted no time calling a few farmers in the area who were done harvesting to ask if they had time to help. It didn’t take long for word to spread. In a short period of time, more than 60 people from several different counties contacted the lifelong friend of this Connersville, Indiana family to offer both their time and their equipment.

On Saturday, November 12, an army of Indiana farmers with equipment and grain carts gathered at Consolidated Grain to help harvest the crops.

Members of the farming community in Connersville, Indiana who were not able to help in the fields found other ways to assist. These ways included donating sandwiches, soups, and drinks to those who were working the fields.

Steve told FOX59 about how shocked he was to see so many people show up to help him and his grieving family in their time of need.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw everyone show up to help. All of the support and the number of people wanting to help is just overwhelming. It was emotional to see everyone. Whatever we needed, they brought.”

Together, the farming community of Connersville, Indiana were able to harvest 18,463 bushels between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Steve said it would have taken him roughly a week to do the work the army of farmers came to do in one day.

The lifetime friend of the Connersville, Indiana family also had a few happy words to say about the way the farming community came together to help her friends.

“There were lots of tears, and it felt so good to help them. They are a wonderful family. And with all the turmoil in the world right now, it felt so good to witness this. Unfortunately, I wish the help didn’t have to come because of this tragedy, but it just shows how much everyone values Steve, and how close this community is. We all know Steve would drop everything to help us, and this shows everyone else doing the same for him.”

Nathan Williamson, one of the members of the Indiana farming community who showed up to help, brought his semi in order to help haul the grain. He believed the high turnout of people wanting to help just reflected what kind of man this Indiana grandfather was.

“He’s a very honest, stand up guy, and just a good community member. I was talking with some other people at the farm and we all seem to agree that the worst things happen to the best people.”

Nathan Williamson also mentioned that this was a very typical response for this small Indiana farming community. “Most farmers look out for each other and would do that for anyone.”

According to Steve, this part of Indiana is often looked down on because they have a high unemployment rate and lack money. He believes this story of how the farming community came together just goes to show there is more to a community than just money and jobs.

[Image by Cegli/ShutterStock]

Steve also hopes that sharing his story will raise awareness on how dangerous a farm can be for a child. He hopes the spreading awareness about the death of his four-year-old granddaughter can save the life of another granddaughter of a farmer in the future.

“We’re hoping this tragedy will help others down the road. Around Halloween, kids visit farms and play in corn mazes and it all looks so pretty and fun. But we need to teach them that farms are a place where serious is work is done and it can be dangerous.”

Share your thoughts on this both sad and happy story about how a small Indiana farming community came together to help a man grieve.

[Featured Image by siribao/ShutterStock]

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