Both Jyl Turner and Don Waters grew up on Iowa farms. In 1988 they married and began farming on their own southwestern Iowa grain operation. They currently farm 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans and are a DeKalb and Asgrow dealership.

On May 5, 2002, while loading seed soybeans into a customer's seed tender, Jyl blacked out and fell off the forklift. She fell three feet onto a cement floor. Her son, Jacob (10), and daughter, Tara (7), were in the shed with her at the time. Jacob immediately called 911. Jyl was life flighted to a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska where she remained for five weeks. The cause of her blackout could not be determined. She was then transferred to the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska where she underwent ten weeks of rehabilitation therapy. On September 6, 2002, she returned home.

Jyl sustained injuries to her 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae, which resulted in paraplegia. She can still move her arms quite well but has limited finger and hand dexterity. With continued rehabilitation she hopes to regain hand strength and the dexterity soon. Currently she uses an electric wheelchair to get around her home and the farm.

Prior to Jyl's injury, she was highly involved in the operation, doing much of the fieldwork along side Don. While Jyl was in the hospital and the rehabilitation facility, Don heard about AgrAbility from the staff at rehab facility. At the same time, a county extension education director who lives in the Waters' county heard about Jyl's incident and contacted Mary Yearns, Program Coordinator for the Iowa AgrAbility Project at Iowa State University. Mary called Don to introduce him to and offer AgrAbility Project services. She and Chuck Larson, Rural Rehabilitation Specialist, Easter Seals Rural Solutions (Iowa AgrAbility Partner) went to visit Don.

Mary and Chuck provided recommendations for making the home more accessible to Jyl. One recommendation both Don and Jyl especially liked was to create a no-step entrance by raising the driveway up even with the front door of the house. This eliminated the need to construct a ramp for Jyl to use. Jyl says, "Moving the driveway was a perfect idea. It doesn't change the look of the house and no one knows a person with a wheelchair lives here." In addition to the driveway, AgrAbility staff provided ideas for bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen modifications. So far, the Waters have re-done the bathroom, widened doorways and removed a wall between the kitchen and dining room to increase Jyl's ease of mobility. They are going to wait on updating the kitchen until they have a better sense of how much hand and finger dexterity Jyl will regain.

Prior to the incident, Don and Jyl handled most of the farm work themselves, except during harvest when they hired a man to assist. Since then, the hired man has been working more. Jyl has a personnel assistant who comes to the house twice a day to aid her in the mornings and evenings. In addition, the Waters have hired a woman to assist with housework and cooking several days a week.

By next year, Jyl wants to be back working on the farm. After Jyl returned home, she and Don met with Chuck to discuss ideas for farm modifications. Jyl said "I feel hopeful because there are a lot of options out there [according to Chuck] for people with injuries like mine." This winter they are planning to re-vamp the lawn mower so it is ready for Jyl next spring. They are also considering purchasing a golf cart or John Deere Gator. Jyl hopes to add a lift to the tractor so she can continue with fieldwork as well. At this point, Don handles most of the record keeping for their business. He uses a computer system to do so. In the future, however, the Waters anticipate Jyl becoming more involved in this area.

Overall, Jyl says, "I'm just taking one day at a time" and hopes to be back on the tractor again by summer 2003!

The Krazy Kowboy

Singer-songwriter Brooke Turner found he couldn't do much to help his sister, Jyl Waters, while she was in the hospital recovering from a fall that left her with paraplegia. So he did what any good songwriter would do, he wrote a song for her. Turner then recorded the song, "Ridin' for the Brand," and took it on the road to raise money for spinal cord research. On August 11, 2002, he saddled up his horses and started a 730-mile ride from Clarinda, Iowa to Nashville, Tennessee giving concerts all along the way. He finished the trip on September 18, 2002.

All the money raised from donations and CD sales during that ride, and all future funds raised through CD sales will go directly to spinal cord research. During his trip, several county cattlemen associations joined Turner's effort by donating time and energy arranging for and serving meals to the concertgoers. The net proceeds of the meals also went to the cause.

If you would like to learn more about this dedicated brother, details about his trip, and/or how to make a donation to his efforts, check out his website at http://www.krazykowboy.com.