The sheep still need feedin'

Bad things happen to everyone and sometimes it gets a little hard to get back up when the ground comes up to meet you. This is the story of Phyllis Southard, who was in a near-fatal accident a year ago, and how she made it home again.

On September 20, 2023, Southard (67 at the time) left her Pine Haven home, where she and husband Michael (75) have lived for many years, to meet a friend in Moorcroft.

She had lost her grandson three days earlier and was running on autopilot as she took a right turn from Pine Haven Road onto Old Sundance too fast and left the tarmac at approximately 65 miles an hour, catching her car on a fence post to the right of the road, causing the vehicle to flip nose over tail before settling back on the wheels in the pasture.

Two workmen came home after a long day in time to see and assist; one was a volunteer firefighter and knew enough first aid to help and the other had a crowbar. They pried the driver's door open and released the seatbelt that was depressing her breathing to dangerous levels and supported her body as they waited for first responders.

Pine Haven did not have a driver for their ambulance available and Moorcroft's ambulances were on other calls, so Sundance sent their own. However, LifeFlight beat the ambulance to the scene and picked Southard up for an emergency trip to the Rapid City Hospital.

"The first thing I remember after turning right is waking up 11 days later in ICU," she says.

She suffered seven broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and sternum, an arm broken in two places and a brain bleed from hitting her head on the driver's door.

Southard was transferred from the Rapid City facility to Sturgis on October 15, where she underwent further physical therapy for two more weeks. She was released to go back home to Pine Haven on October 25, 2023.

During her time in the Rapid City Hospital, Michael attended her every day, traveling approximately 240 miles round trip each time to be with her until she was moved from ICU.

"Then I made him stay home a couple days," she says.

Many others visited her and took care of Michael, too.

"I was amazed by the number of people who came to Rapid and Sturgis to see me," she says.

At the time of the accident, Southard's grandson had recently died and she was going to miss his funeral, but the friend whom she had been going to meet that day worked with her own daughter to ensure Southard was able to watch the funeral on a laptop from her hospital bed.

Southard cannot work anymore as her ability to go all day has been severely compromised and, after her current driver's license expires, she's not sure she can get another because she suffered nerve damage in one eye and now drives only where she is confident she knows the area and there is not too much traffic.

Southard has experienced many losses in her 68 years, among them the death of her mother when she was 16. She recalls the morning after, when she and her ten-year-old sister were still in bed, her father woke her to join him in feeding the sheep.

"I said, 'Dad, I don't want to get up. You go do the chores. He said, 'Phyllis, life is for the living and them damn sheep have got to be fed," she says.

Looking back on the accident and how hard she fought to get back up with the help of family and friends, the advice Southard remembers and wants others to take advantage of is, "Somebody needs you, you've got to get up and get going. Even if it's just your dog... You've got to be there for them. Life is for the living and those damn sheep have to be fed."