Former Guilford County Human Resources Director Karen Fishel has now branched far outside of HR work in an effort to provide hope and inspiration to people all around the world.
Fishel has just published a book about the devastating life-altering accident that almost cost her bull-riding son his life nearly three years ago. The book recounts that tragedy and tells the story of the miraculous healing process that followed.
While competing in the NC High School Rodeo, her son Wesley was thrown from a bull and crushed by it in the brutal aftermath. Doctors didn’t expect Wesley to survive the night; however, after multiple surgeries and a massive number of prayers, he was home weeks later with some short-term memory loss and pain in his foot – but, most importantly, alive and miraculously well.
Fishel, who left the job with Guilford County earlier this year to take a job with Furnitureland South, has felt driven to tell her family’s story as a way to provide hope to others.
The book – “Say I Won’t: A Cowboy’s True Story of Defiance in the Face of Death and the Present-Day Miracle that Kindled a Fire of Faith” – is available in hardback and softcover on Amazon this week. It details the story of those events that caught the attention of everyone from local news outlets to people in other parts of the world.
The book’s description on Amazon reads, “Sixteen-year-old Wesley had his heart set on an eight-second ride that February morning. As he lowered himself onto the bull inside the chute, his heart raced with anticipation and excitement. His head nodded. The chute opened. Cowboy and bull released into the stage of competition. Tragedy struck. His lifeless and broken body laid face down on the dirt floor of the arena. Trampled by the 1900-pound bull he sought to conquer. The once cheering crowd silenced, frozen with fear. But where the heartbeat stops, God’s plan takes over… What could possibly be God’s plan for this young cowboy? For the audience? For the nation?”
According to Fishel it was “a modern miracle that defied all odds, baffled medical professionals, and transformed lives around the world.” She added, “As every person would say, ‘That cowboy can’t,’ that cowboy responded, ‘Say I won’t.’
Fishel, a mother of three from North Carolina, said she never considered writing a book until God gave her and her family this story to tell.
She labels herself “a Human Resources professional by day and a farm wife by night.”
Fishel and her husband, who she met in 1987 while they were students at NC State University, run a beef cattle operation when they aren’t doing their other work.
Fishel wrote: “I began writing for my own therapy. I continued writing because this powerful story needs to be told and needs to be heard. My prayer is that it reach hands of those who need to be reminded, or perhaps need to know for the first time that our God is still in the miracle business. I want people to know how powerful He is and how powerful prayer is.”
I look forward to reading her book. Events like this change families and have huge impacts on the lives of those around us. I’m glad she was able to write about how it affected her family. I’ve never figured out how to write about the accident my mom had in 2002 resulting in her being a quadriplegic and how it changed our family but it did lead me to make decisions that have been positive in my life and for many around me. Thank you for sharing her story with us.