He held a cane with a white tip, Pat Aukema remembers.
«He said, ‘Are you the one who had the fire?'» she recalled.
When Pat confirmed, he handed her $50.
He explained that about 20 to 25 years ago, the Aukemas welcomed him into their Chenango Forks home to use the phone after his car broke down.
Pat doesn’t remember helping this man. But her act of kindness has stuck with him two decades later.
«He said, ‘I was just repaying you,'» Pat said.
The Aukemas have many more stories just like this one.
They have so many, in fact, that Pat scrapped the three pages of paper she used to jot down a list of all the people she has to thank.
There’s just too many people.
It’s stories like those that help keep the Aukemas hopeful, even just four days after auctioning off 65 of the farm’s cows.
Aukema Dairy, which supplies the micro-creamery Dutch Hill Creamery, is co-owned by Brian Aukema, his brother Jim and father, Doug.
As November snow fell on the concrete foundation that used to hold the barn, the Aukemas said they had a lot to be grateful for.
The morning before Doug and Pat drove to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with their daughter — packed suitcases sitting on their dining room floor — they reflected on the loss of the past 40 days and looked forward to new opportunities in the future.
The ‘worst’ day
Every morning, Doug Aukema looks out the window of his home to make sure the dairy barn’s lights are still on.
It’s a habit that has stuck with him even after the barn was destroyed.
«They don’t come on any more,» Doug said.
The fire ripped through the barn at Aukema Dairy Farm during the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 10. It was first spotted by Brian’s son Brycen Aukema, 9, who now calls that day «the worst day of his life.»
Brycen alerted Doug and Brian of the fire, and the three were able to usher the barn’s 65 cows out of the barn in about 15 to 20 minutes.
But it wasn’t long until about a dozen neighboring farmers arrived, many of whom were strangers to the Aukemas. They formed a human fence and brought roughly 15 trailers to ship the cows from the Aukema’s to Livingston Farm in Lisle, owned by a family friend of the Aukemas.
Responders from about eight fire departments battled the blaze, which was later determined by investigators to be caused by a tractor that was used to feed the animals.
The tractor was too damaged for investigators to determine exactly how it caught fire.
Although hay continued to smolder into the following afternoon, the fire injured no humans or animals.
The wreckage was completely cleared by the following Saturday, thanks to another 100 to150 community members who flocked to the farm to help the Aukema family.
«The barn is a complete loss,» Doug said. «There’s nothing left.»
Saying goodbye
Brian couldn’t bring himself to watch the cows auctioned off on Nov. 16 at Livingston Farm.
«You get attached to some of them,» he said.
The Aukemas chose to sell the farm’s 65 milking cows, keeping 47 calves who have not yet been bred and were not milking.
The calves are all about 2 years old, and the Aukemas may breed and sell them when they begin milking. Brian’s children can also use them for 4-H activities.
«It gives us something to do on the farm,» Doug said.
It was in both the family’s and cows’ best interest to sell the cows, the Aukemas determined.
Before they were auctioned off, Brian and Jim drove 30 minutes — 21 miles each way — to Livingston’s Farm to deliver feed and milk the cows twice each day.
At Livingston Farm, the cows were too large for the facilities and lacked the amenities they had become accustomed to at the Aukemas, such as mattress pads to lay on.
As winter approaches, it would not be feasible to build a new barn.
«We had no facility left to re-build, at this point,» Brian said. «It wasn’t cost-effective. It just didn’t make sense.»
Doug described the cows’ transition as similar to «going from a king-sized bed to a twin bed.»
«They didn’t have the comforts of home they were used do,» Brian said. «So, before they started getting hurt and getting beat up in the stalls and getting bruises on them, we decided it was best for them to go to their new home where they can be treated.»
All 65 cows were sold during the auction, but at a lower price than the Aukemas hoped, due to the dairy market taking a downturn.
«It was not our good day, but we made a lot of people happy by buying good cows cheap,» Pat said.
Doug sat through the entirety of auction, but it wasn’t easy.
«They had to be sold, there was no alternative for us,» he said.
Four generations of Aukemas
As the wreckage was cleared, Brian frequently posted pictures and video of the farm’s progress to his Facebook page.
In one video, displaying the progress of the clean-up, Brian explained that he was documenting the recovery to share with his children as well as the next generation of Aukemas.
«The kids have been alright,» Brian said. «They’ve grown up with this. Animals come and go. They’ve been around them when they’ve died and they’ve expected that.»
Brycen, who had some of his own cows in the barn, has had the hardest time in the fire’s aftermath.
«He wanted to know where his cow was and who bought it,» Brian said.
But Brian is confident that Brycen will move on with time.
Doug began milking cows when he was just 10 years old and has been milking for 65 years.
According to Dutch Hill Creamery’s website, Doug and Pat Aukema moved from New Jersey to the Chenango Forks farm in 1967. They raised all of their four children on the farm.
Brian and his wife, Crystal, are raising their three school-aged children on the farm as well. They opened the micro-creamery in 2013, but it has closed and is no longer processing.
Even though the cows are gone, the family will still continue to work in agriculture.
But they will first take a break this winter, they said, and then decide their next step.
Doug said the family will pursue «different avenues of agriculture» such as hay making or education.
«The doors shut and the doors will open,» he said.
‘Thank you’
«You can’t believe it,» Pat said of the help the family received following the fire.
The good Samaritans came out of every facet of the Aukemas lives.
They were neighbors, friends, fellow farmers, their children’s teachers, local politicians, members of the Farm Bureau, friends from church, 4-H members, school counselors and complete strangers.
«We’ve had huge support all the way through,» Brian said.
They helped clean the wreckage and take care of the cows. They babysat Brian’s children and cooked dinner every day until Nov. 1. They donated money and brought excavators and bulldozers.
They prayed, sent good thoughts, posted positive messages on Facebook and sent text messages.
The stories are endless.
Doug remembers one stranger who arrived with an excavator the night of the fire.
«He was here all week long with that excavator cleaning up,» Doug said. «He said, ‘I’m not leaving here until it’s cleaned up.'»
A Go Fund Me page, set up by Dave Curtis, a neighbor and family friend of the Aukemas, has been streadily growing since the evening of the fire. It was up to $14,901 in donations on Nov. 20.
Pat and Doug had never stepped inside Davy’s Last Chance Saloon on Route 12, but that didn’t stop the bar from gifting them a card with 100 signatures and well wishes.
«From the local bar to the senator,» Doug said, acknowledging a visit from state Sen. Fred Akshar. «From one extreme to the other, they were here to help us.»
The Livingston family did not simply provide shelter for the cows, but helped the Aukemas each day.
They fed Brian and Jim breakfast each morning they arrived to milk the cows and also provided the location for the auction.
«Everything went as smooth as it possibly could,» Doug said.
It’s this community that Doug and Pat are thankful for this year.
But, more simply, Pat is just thankful for «life.»
«We all got out alive,» Doug said, choking back tears. «The cows got out alive. You thought about thankfulness, that’s thankfulness. That nobody got hurt.»
Pat doesn’t know how to begin to express her gratitude and admits that the experience has been «overwhelming.»
And it’s time to move on, Doug said. He looks forward to the new opportunities the family will have in the future.
But, for now, it’s time to relax.
And, grabbing their suitcases as soon as our interview is over, Doug and Pat were looking forward to the warm weather of North Carolina.
«It’s been one remarkable journey,» Doug said.