WALWORTH COUNTY MID WEEK : December, 1998
Burlington Man Befriends Holt and Stopple after Surviving Accident
By Dale Reich
A Burlington man who has recovered from the burns he suffered in a 1994 accident has become a major source of inspiration for Ken
Stopple and Dave Holt.
Bill Ester will always bear the scars of the explosion that burned him critically four and a half years ago, but he says that doesn't matter.
Still being alive, and still being able to be with his family, are what matter now.
"I'll always have these scars," he said, pointing to his hands and arms. "But that's OK. They still work."
Now Ester runs a support group for people like Holt and Stopple, in the same Milwaukee burn unit where he was once a patient himself.
On Nov. 2, Ester took his portable piano up to the burn unit and played music for the wedding of Holt and his fiancée, Deby Welch.
Ester even came to Walworth County and drove a truck for two weeks as part of the volunteer effort to bring in the Holt and Stopple crops.
He said he did that for two reasons.
"It's the right thing to do, and I wanted Ken and Dave to know that they can do it, too," said Ester.
Ester said the accident that left him burned over a large section of his body was something that he "wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."
"It took me two years before I could do anything," he said.
Ester said he eventually got used to the fact that people would stare at him wherever he went.
"It was my daughter who convinced me to wear a short-sleeved shirt," he said.
Ester is constantly urging his two injured friends to be patient and to be brave.
"What I've shared with Dave and Ken is that when you think you can't go on another minute, you find a way to go on for two," he said. "It's a mental thing. I tell them that people have done it before, and they can, too."
Ester said he was motivated to keep fighting his pain by the thoughts of "riding my bicycle again, and walking my daughter down the aisle
when she gets married."
Stopple was discharged from the hospital two weeks ago, and even spent some time riding a combine during the special harvest. Dave Holt,
however, is still hospitalized with major complications, but Ester says he'll eventually turn the corner.
"I asked the doctor if Dave would ever run a combine again, and he said yes," Ester recalled.
Like hundreds of others, Ester was present for the big benefit dinner at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Delevan, last Thursday.
"It's what life is all about, helping others," he said.
