An unfortunate farmer shows grace under fire.
WHERE THERE’S A WAY, THERE’S A WILL
When Cecil George Harris left his home to work in his fields near Rosetown in Saskatchewan on the morning of June 8, 1948, he bid his wife and two small children goodbye and told them that he’d see them late that night.
WHEN NEUTRAL ISN’T
Just about an hour after leaving, he accidentally left his tractor out of gear while making some repairs. The tractor moved backwards and trapped Harris’s left leg underneath a rear wheel. His leg bled profusely, and no one came to find Harris for nine hours. When he did not return home late that night, his wife went to look for him. She found him at about 10:30 p.m. and rushed him to the hospital, where he died.
Harris didn’t have an official will. And he was unconscious by the time he was taken to the hospital, so he made no mention of leaving the world a message.
FENDING FOR HIS LIFE
Days after the accident, neighbors examining the scene of the accident noticed a few words scratched into the fender. They read: “In case I die in this mess, I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo. Harris.”
Although his leg was pinned, his hands were free and Harris had used his pocketknife to etch those few words as he lay dying.
The fender was removed from the tractor and submitted to the courts, which determined it to be a legitimate handwritten will. The fender was filed with the registrar of wills as the Last Will and Testament of George Harris at the Surrogate Court in the District of Kerrobert, Canada. In 1996, the fender was turned over to the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan and put on public display in the library.
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