A car crash devastated a Colorado farming family. Amputation turned it around.

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Words by Sue McMillin, Special to The Colorado Sun. Photos by Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun.

PLEASANT VIEW — At the dinner table the night before she died, Judy Rohwer told her daughters and grandson that they were all working too hard on the family farm. They must stop working seven days a week, take breaks and do fun things.

“She wanted us each to come up with two things we wanted to do away from the farm,” Angela Rohwer said.

About 12 hours later, they were forcibly torn from their work when their pickup was struck head-on as they Traveled May 21, 2022, to the Durango Farmers Market from their southwestern Colorado farm hauling a trailer full of seedlings and produce. 

Judy Rohwer, 73, died at the scene. Her daughters, Angela and Heidi Rohwer, and grandson Zackery Berg were loaded into ambulances and taken to Mercy Hospital in Durango. Angela was released from the hospital that evening, but she’d be back for shoulder surgery within weeks. Zack had four spinal fractures but was soon released in a full torso brace that restricted his movement for three months while he healed.

Heidi had the most severe injuries and was flown to Swedish Hospital in Denver with a broken pelvis and her right hip and ankle shattered.

Heidi joked wryly that the idea of “getting away from the farm” did not include time in hospitals or at doctors’ appointments.

“I was running him (Zack) to appointments, Heidi to appointments, myself to appointments and every time I had to drive past the spot where we crashed,” Angela said. “The stains from oil and automotive fluids were there for a long time. It was all I could smell for weeks.”

Dozens of volunteers — friends and strangers — stepped in to help keep the farm afloat.

Angela, Zack and Heidi longed to get back in the fields and pasture — to dig in the soil, pull weeds, open and close greenhouses, harvest crops, shear the sheep, pack produce for the market. And, for Angela and Heidi, to return to their jobs with the all-volunteer Pleasant View Fire Protection District, where Angela is the chief and Heidi is the EMT captain.

In recent weeks, the setbacks, pain and uncertainty that has plagued Heidi’s recovery has been replaced by the sense that things have finally turned around and the future is bright.

That turning point came in late January, when Heidi’s right leg was amputated below the knee.

The first market of the season in Durango is a bit like a family reunion and a bit like a grange hall meeting — lots of hugs and warm greetings and sharing how things are on the farms. 

At the Rohwer’s Farm stand, people also wanted to know how Heidi was doing since the amputation, which had been shared in the family’s monthly newsletter.

“How’s our girl?” one customer asked Angela.

“She’s here — over there,” Angela replied, pointing across the rows of produce and seedlings. “She’s a foot shorter.”

The customer chuckled. “I was going to make a joke but thought maybe it was too soon.”

“Nah,” Angela said, laughing. “It’s not too soon.”

The line was Heidi’s response to her sister as she was wheeled into surgery for the amputation after Angela said, “see you on the other side.”