Ring of Glory: Pennsylvania Teen Chases Dairy Dreams After Surviving House Fire
U.S. Farm Report 10/08/22 - Grit With Grace
It takes a lot of days in the barn to be ready for the ring at places such as the 2022 All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Pa.
For Reese Burdette and her family, each precious step along the way is quite literally a miracle.
“Showing and going to shows are some of my favorite memories,” Reese says.
The Burdette family lives and farms just outside of Mercersburg, Pa., at a dairy that's just the right size to keep two teenagers busy.
"Reese will water and I'll feed grain and then she'll get milk and I'll feed milk and then she'll do bottles,” explains sister Brinkley Burdette. “We’ll usually get done fast, and then we walk our show calves.”
It is a step-by-step process their parents, Justin and Claire, are only too happy to watch.
“Oftentimes, it can bring tears to your eyes, when you look back to where we were,” Claire says. “I just know how hard it has been and still how hard it is for Reese.”
“She has some grit and determination,” echoes Justin. “She likes to prove to people that that she's capable of doing it.”
What Reese is doing in the showring is nothing special in her eyes.
“I mean, it's difficult but everybody has difficulties in the ring,” she says.
The challenges for Reese started Memorial Day weekend in 2014 during a visit to her grandparents’ house.
“It was a Sunday evening and what we now know is an electrical fire started in the room Reese was in,” Claire recalls.
Her mother quickly rushed into the room among the flames to pull Reese to safety while Claire’s stepdad went after sister Brinkley.
“I do remember getting out, sitting on the porch and waiting,” Reese remembers.
Badly burned, Reese was flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.
“I was in a lot of pain, I was scared, and they were telling me all these different things I didn't know,” Reese says.
Justin and Claire arrived at this hospital as quickly as they could.
“First, they told us we'd be there one to two weeks and then it turned to one to two months,” Claire says. “We thought: How are we going to do this? How are we going to continue to farm both of us being away? Then it turned into 662 days.”
Reese was in the hospital for 662 days of recovery, of setbacks and unknowns.
“Through this journey Reese has had five cardiac arrests and she lost her leg in the hospital in that first couple of weeks due to blood flow issues,” Claire says.
Reese’s lungs needed rest, so doctors used an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine to pump blood outside of her body, remove carbon dioxide and send oxygen-filled blood back. However, there were complications and Reese’s parents were forced to make a call about amputation.
“Our surgeon looked us right in the face and said if it was my child, I'd do it,” Justin says. “You now have to be willing to have bad days to make good days.”
The good days were often overshadowed by the difficult ones. From the amputation, to learning to stand and eventually walk again, the days were long. Reese's parents recognized she needed a goal.
That’s when a favorite dairy cow Pantene -- named after the haircare products -- came back into the picture.
“She was actually the first calf I showed at our county fair,” Reese says.
That’s why Pantene has a little extra hold on Reese’s heart. After weeks in the hospital her friend from home was the right incentive to keep stepping forward.
"One of her doctors was an off-the-wall thinker,” Justin says. “He said, ‘Well, bring Pantene down here.’”
So, through the streets of Baltimore they went with a trailer, right to the main entrance of John Hopkins. Reese remembers that day clearly.
“She came to visit me in the hospital when I first learned to stand up,” Reese says. “That really made me want to get home.”
“It was definitely a moment,” Claire says. “It also gave the nurses and doctors who were fighting along with us perspective on where Reese came from and what she loved.”
Just about two months shy of two years, Reese came home to a hero's welcome.
“There were a lot of people and one of the first things we did was come down here to the barn to see Pantene,” remembers Reese.
For Claire, the return home reunited her family of four.
“I felt like it was okay to laugh again,” she says. “It was OK to go out to dinner again. It was OK to go to the movies because we weren't slighting her in any way. We were all included as one.”
A family and a farm were together again, and they were ready to restart the life they'd put on pause.
“We know she has something in store for her and she's meant to be here,” Claire says. “We don't know how her story is going to unfold, but it will.”
Reese returned to the showring. The first year she needed a wheelchair to back her up. This year she will be stepping through the sawdust on her own.
“I was actually just telling my friend that most of my favorite memories have been made at the Harrisburg show,” Reese says.
Now she’s setting her sights on Madison and World Dairy Expo, if she can get her parents on board.
"I’m working on it,” Reese laughs.
Along with showing, she's taken up dance and recently joined FFA. Those extracurriculars happen between follow-up trips to the hospital.
"She had a tracheotomy in 2014 and that was taken out this last year,” Claire says. “The progress she's made from that has been amazing.”
She also had a leg revision in 2022, which has helped improve her mobility and reduce pain when walking.
“It's easier for her to feed hay and stuff,” Brinkley says. “It's easier for her to water, although I still have to hook up the water for her sometimes.”
It's all helping Reese find a future without limits.
“She has visions of going to college and I've given her a three-hour radius,” Claire says.
“Our reality for Reese is that Reese is normal,” Justin says. “She needs to get the childhood she missed back.”
These steps along life's path, may seem so small for most but for Reese they're the road back to a future nearly lost. Her future now is stacked high with possibilities.
“You can get so caught up in the little things and at the end of the day, the little things don't matter,” Claire says. “It's the big picture and as long as you have your health and your family that's all that matters.”
Last month at the Harrisburg All-American show, Reese stood fifth in showmanship out of 140 kids.
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