WEST LIBERTY, Iowa — It was a day of celebration mixed with some sadness. The friends and family of Tom Brown gathered to harvest his corn crop. Tom lost his life in a traffic accident in July. His wife Diane was injured in that crash, but is making a recovery. That left their only child Jessica Schroeder to step up and organize the last harvest.

“Just short four months ago my mom was sitting in the hospital bed and we were still grieving,” said Shroeder. “The fact that my dad was gone, and all we could do, is sit there and think about how are we going to do all this. How are we going to harvest all these crops? How are we going to manage this?”

Her answer to her own question was, one step at a time.

“The hardest part about this is that, you know, during the funeral my mom was in the hospital,” said Shroeder. “We had all this ahead of us and it was really hard to focus on celebrating life, and today truly is a celebration of life.”

Nine combines were supported by a bunch of grain carts and tractors, and a long line of semi trucks to haul the grain away to storage. For Tom’s friends it was good to help, but at the same time sad.

“Sad day to me because I miss Tom being around,” said Craig Noring, a family friend. “Tom would be proud of his daughter, all  she did to do this.”

“Just one of those forever friends that you don’t realize how much you’re going to miss until they’re not there,” said Mike Deahr, a family friend.

“I am so grateful for everybody’s help and support and the way that communities come together to help us,” said Diane Brown. “I can never repay, it’s just awesome!”

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