A nearby resident who heard the plane flying above watched in horror as its tail abruptly dropped below the height of its nose. Its left wing flipped sharply upward, reversing the plane’s wing angle. She screamed for her husband as the plane plummeted into a dense bank of evergreen trees 500 feet short of the runway. First responders found a scene


they’d never forget. The twisted wreck lay on the ground, nose buried in the earth below large trees, their tops sheared off. The right wing, ripped from the mangled flight cabin, burst into flames several yards away. Miner and his wife died upon impact. Richard suffered traumatic head and chest injuries and died soon afterward at a local hospital. Wes, age 11, had critical head and shoulder injuries. Barbara, age 14, had a broken left leg, shattered femurs in both legs and a broken collarbone. Trapped in the cabin’s back seat, she repeatedly asked to be awakened from her bad dream so she could find her mother. “I have no recollection of the flight or the crash due to


Barbara and Wes matured quickly in


the aftermath of the crash. A poignant conversation Scheffer had with her brother at that time reveals much about her fortitude. Wes recalled Scheffer’s statement in a book he later wrote about the crash: “There’s nothing either of us can now


Barbara recovering at Northwoods Hospital, Phelps, Wisc., 1959.


do to change what happened,” she said. “Mom and Dad are not going to be here anymore and we both need to accept that as quickly as possible. The two of us now have to stick together no matter what happens. We have to look after each other and make sure each of us is


retrograde amnesia,” says Barbara Scheffer, who survived with her brother. “I remember waking up in the hospital that evening with my legs in traction devices. The doctors and nurses didn’t tell us a whole lot immediately, but I knew we had been in some kind of accident. After realizing what happened, I felt some survivor guilt and cried a lot. But I also knew I had to move on and move forward.” Scheffer, who retired from Eastern in July after teaching


nursing for 37 years, doesn’t look back on the events that took place that night very often. It wasn’t until 50 years later that she reflected deeply on the crash and how it affected her life. Her survivor mindset, remarkably well formed at such a young age, gave her the drive to find fulfillment in life, even in the face of tragedy.


An adult in a kid’s body Scheffer and her brother remained


at the 20-bed Northwoods Hospital in nearby Phelps, Wisc. for two weeks. Wes slowly recovered from his injuries while Scheffer remained in a plaster cast from the waist down and with pins in her legs. Their uncle, who had arrived from New Jersey to assume guardianship, arranged to have the children immediately flown back east so Scheffer could see a renowned orthopedic surgeon.


24 Eastern | SPRING 2014


always there for the other one if things get difficult. This is how it has to be from now on. If there are problems we have to work it out between the two of us and there is no place anymore for fighting with each other.” Doctors initially said Scheffer would never walk again. But she made steady progress after two extensive surgeries. She left the hospital by late October, progressed from a wheelchair to crutches, spent many hours in physical therapy and was walking by December. Since then, she has walked normally. Beyond recovering physically, Barbara and Wes also had to adjust emotionally. “Technically, we were orphans, but I never thought of it that


way,” Scheffer says. “We just survived. My aunt and uncle did the best they could. They were caring on many levels, but they also had a six-year-old and three-year-old. It was tough for them to have two older children suddenly thrown into the mix. “Wes and I didn’t have counseling at the time and we didn’t talk about the crash. We just shut the door on one life and opened a door on a new one. I recognized I was now an adult in a kid’s body.” Wes, who lives in England and works as a senior scientific consultant for a pharmacological research company, says that even at that young age, Scheffer had an exceptional, goal-oriented outlook on life. “Barbara immediately assumed


responsibility for taking on the role as my ‘mother,’ ‘father,’ and ‘sister’ all in one,” he says. “She didn’t think deeply about it—she just knew she had to do it. Barbara was just destined to be a leader. I wouldn’t be where I am today had she not taken on that responsibility.”


Barbara and Wes Miner with their aunt, Ellen Miner.


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