Cold weather is a painful reminder of what can happen
By Michael Johnson, Editor
The date was Jan. 7 1980, when Terry Sayler headed back home from Washburn in a blizzard. It was one of those nights where no living thing should be outside, the daytime temperature reached its peak at 14 below, the low was around 80 below with the wind-chill. Against the requests of his friends, Terry felt compelled to leave a meeting where he had been drinking alcohol, so he could stoke up the coals in the furnace at his home about 11 miles outside of Washburn. What would pan out over the next 12 hours brought Terry to a new point of faith in God and understanding in the power of the cold. Terry left town pleased to see that much of the roads were cleared, which made him all the more confident that he would make it home in no time to throw a few more chunks of coal in the furnace and warm up. But Terry made the decision to take a back road that he normally wouldn’t. "Why I took that road I’ll never know," Terry said. When he approached a curve in the road he expected it to be a smooth one. But the road had been squared off and snow hooked the tire of Terry’s truck and pulled him off the road. He drove out into a field attempting to get back but just got stuck further until the snow caused the engine to get wet and stall.
