For farmers, harvest season brings its own set of challenges. But for Indiana farm family Brad, Kelley, Caleb and Lucas Bradshaw, this year’s harvest stress comes with a side of gratitude.
“We’re just thankful we have something to harvest,” admits Brad Bradshaw, a farmer in New Carlisle, Ind. “If it wasn’t for the friends and families in this community and beyond, we’d be up a creek.”
The nightmare began on May 8, 2025, when Bradshaw, the assistant junior varsity baseball coach at New Prairie High School, loaded onto one of two mini-buses headed for an away game. Bradshaw was driving with Lucas and 6 teammates on board. While stopped at a traffic light just a few miles from home, their bus was violently struck from behind by a box truck traveling over 70 miles per hour.
“I happen to look up and think, ‘Oh my God, we’re about to get hit.’ All I remember was getting hit and I was out,” Bradshaw recounts.
The impact flipped the bus onto its side and threw Lucas onto the pavement.
“I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize but I missed it,” Kelley says. “The number called again and something just told me to pick it up. A gentleman explained that there had been an accident.”
Lucas was airlifted to a nearby hospital. Doctors were able to get him stable, but a traumatic brain injury led to a medically induced coma, then swelling, a craniotomy and breathing and feeding tubes. Bradshaw suffered a broken sternum and ribs, along with a host of other contusions. He was treated and released, but Lucas’ path forward remained cloudy.
“We had hope,” Kelley shares through tears. “We always had hope.”
As he fought for his life, the New Carlisle community sprang into action. Friends and family helped get their crops planted and handle work on the farm.
“There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work that just happened,” Kelley says.
While Lucas was hospitalized, his brother Caleb stepped up, managing the farm work and caring for their 4-H animals.
“It was pretty hard,” Caleb says. “I got home late every day, but it was okay doing it by myself.”
By June, the family, down a team member, reluctantly headed to the county fair knowing Lucas wouldn’t be there in 2025.
“We were at the county fair and my sister texts and says they’ve deemed Lucas medically awake,” Bradshaw says.
Good news amid the craziness of fair season. Friends stepped in to show Lucas’ livestock. When it came time for the sale, the community rallied behind him. His recovery journey then led him to Mary Free Bed, a rehab hospital in Grand Rapids, nearly two hours from the farm.
“When he got there, he just lay there,” Kelley says. “He couldn’t do anything else. His eyes weren’t even open. One eye was cracked and that was it.”
With each passing day, there was improvement. The small wins added up to big gains. After 125 days in the hospital, on September 10, Lucas took his next big step.
“They said it was their number one graduation, and they wish all their graduations were like that,” Lucas proudly says, “When I saw the whole baseball team, I was like, ‘Wow.’ I was happy.”
With friends, family, staff and teammates cheering him on, Lucas walked out of the hospital where he was wheeled in.
As the fall baseball season concluded, the harvest season roared into full swing.
“He’s had a traumatic brain injury, so he has some damage and some things that he has to work on to get better,” Bradshaw says. “We have hope that he will get better. He’s determined to do that, and he has huge goals, which I love goals.”
There’s a renewed drive for this family to reclaim the seasons they lost and get back to the fields they love. Today, they understand each day is a gift.
“The number of people that just happened to be in the right place at the right time truly is a miracle,” Kelley says.
Bradshaw echoes: “It’s just a miracle that seven players and two coaches are all walking today. We could have lost all of us. We were blessed that day. Everybody was blessed.”
As the combine races toward the end of harvest, those blessings are pouring out on those watching a son, a friend, a brother and a teammate return to the field.
“Farming has always been a thing to do and growing up that’s all there’s been,” Lucas says. “I pretty much need to find my way. If I want to do something, it’s going to involve farming.”
A determination to roll through this season and the next, ready to plant the gifts God so graciously spared.
