Mountain farmer family – dead in tractor: “Dad is in heaven now!”

It used to be the little boy’s great passion: running into the stable straight after kindergarten with shining eyes and looking at the cows. Ride the tractor, feed the chickens, pet the cats. Earlier. That was before his father was taken in a tragic accident. “Now he goes straight to his room and only comes out to eat. He doesn’t let anything comfort him,” says his mother. Because daddy is gone. And will never come back.

January 7 was the fateful day. The house, which clings like a nest to the steep mountain 4,000 feet above sea level, ran out of firewood. “My husband wanted to get something from the forest,” the widow remembers of the day, which started like so many previous days. Only that was different: “It was strange that our dog ‘Benno’, who was normally with him, did not get into the tractor but wanted to go into the house, that surprised us.” But the five-year-old wanted so much with daddy, as he often did.

Was it a strange feeling? A vague premonition? “I didn’t let the boy come with me,” his mother says. “It was so cold and so much snow outside.”

With four chains attached to the tractor, the 47-year-old drove up one of the steep slopes of the mountain farm to collect firewood from the forest. “But then he didn’t come back at the agreed time, didn’t answer his mobile phone, didn’t respond to messages. I knew immediately: something had happened. Something terrible.”

And then a neighbor called. The woman from Styria describes that he accidentally saw the tractor slide upside down from the meadow. The man from Upper Styria took out his binoculars and watched his neighbor in the tractor slide more than 200 meters downhill, helpless and unstoppable. Eventually the car rolled over and the car came to a stop. Nobody got out. There was only silence. He saw the death of his friend. The rescue took three hours in the impassable terrain, but there was no help for the injured man.

The family is devastated. Not only has she lost her husband, father and son, she is now alone. There are 40 suckler cows to care for, make hay, chop wood and much more – an incredible amount to do. Getting professional help on the mountain farm seems almost impossible. Some sympathetic neighbors and relatives have pledged support. And the first ‘vultures’ are already circling around the old mountain farm, which is also in debt. “Some are trying to get our house very cheaply and say: this cannot last,” says the widow bitterly. But to lose your home after losing the man you love? This is excluded for the woman and the three children, two of whom are older. The three of them, who previously worked a lot in the house and in the yard, now work even harder. “We will not let our house be taken from us.”

Account is frozen
The family still doesn’t know what avalanche they will face financially. It is not yet clear how much debt there is on the home. What is certain is that the man’s account is frozen and she currently has no money! Everything needed to cremate the man had to be scraped together with great difficulty. Not to mention the fact that keeping suckler cows and selling wood barely yields enough to keep a family afloat.

‘Where is daddy, when will he finally come home?’ the five-year-old often asks, crying as he sobs into his rabbit’s fur. “Daddy is in heaven now,” his mother tries to explain to him. “He protects you from above.” Words meant to comfort. But that is impossible.

No one can bring back the head of the Styrian family. But “The Crown Helps – Styria” would at least financially try to help the widow and three children get past the worst quickly. Would you like to support us: account number AT152081500044569523 in the name of KW Traktor. 100 percent of donations benefit the family and are tax deductible.