Saskatchewan farmers pull together to help grieving family

A group of Saskatchewan farmers have come together to help a neighbour.

The response was overwhelming when people heard Brian Williams was in hospital. When Williams died on Friday, some 20 farmers brought their combines to his farm near Milestone to help get his crop in.

Family friend Jeff Brown, who is also the mayor of Milestone, organized the harvest on the Williams farm.

“My phone started ringing, people saying ‘we want to help, we want to help,'” Brown said. “And pretty soon we were up to a dozen or 15 combines.”

He said he wasn’t expecting so many volunteers.

But those who reached out insisted – they just wanted to show their support.

“Some people had been in that situation before, and knew what it was like to get the help, and people just wanted to come and help,” Brown said.

Once they knew they had the combines, they got the grain carts ready and harvest went ahead on Sunday.

Brown said everything went off without a hitch.

“By three o’clock we just finished off 450 acres. It happened very fast. There was grain carts and combines going everywhere.”

Brown said watching it all come together left him with a lump in his throat and a smile from ear-to-ear.

“The sight of all those people, it was overwhelming. There was some tears and some laughter,” Brown said.

—With files from 650 CKOM’s David Kirton