By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. — Everyone has heard of gifts that keep on being given – fruitcakes, wrong-sized sweaters or extra toasters. The recipient simply wraps the gift in new paper and passes it on.

Karleen Sheetz took that idea beyond its usual limits in 2008 when she tied a big red bow on a restored 1953 Farmall Super H that had been given to her husband, Doug, and his first wife, Michelle, shortly after their marriage in 1988.

By then, the tractor had seen better days. Its first owner had left it outside and elements had taken their toll by the time he gave it to Michelle’s parents, Richard and Barbara Schneider, who in turn passed it on to the young couple. With a little work and a lot of coaxing, it served the newlyweds well.

But then, the unthinkable happened. Michelle Sheetz died in an auto wreck. Heartbroken, Doug kept the tractor, vowing one day to restore it in her memory.

By the time he and Karleen married, the venerable old tractor was mostly relegated to a corner of his barn near Columbia City. He still wanted to restore it but didn’t know when that would happen.

Karleen, knowing how much he treasured the tractor and memories of Michelle, slipped the tractor out of the barn and asked an area restorer to turn the rusting relic into a like-new farming implement.
Once it was completed, a friend parked the tractor in Doug’s workshop where family and friends, including the Schneiders, gathered late in December to surprise Doug with his wife’s gift.

“Michelle helped make you the man I love,” she said, “and I wanted to show my love to her memory with this gift.”

The expression on Doug’s face clearly indicated he didn’t mind being re-gifted.