Had the choice had been his, 28-year-old Chad Hymas of Rush Valley wouldn’t have been in that horrible ranch accident a year ago that left him a C-5 quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down with limited use of his arms.
If the choice had been his, Chad, husband of Shondell and father of four-year-old Christian and two-year-old Kyler, would still be molding his businesses of landscape construction, real estate investing, and elk preservation on 5,100 acres of thick pine and Douglas fir.
If the choice had been his, Chad would still be playing league basketball and baseball and he’d still be a basketball referee. He’d still be surprising his wife with annual exotic cruises, and he’d still be spending cool spring nights on the family’s outdoor basketball court with his boys.
If the choice had been his ... but wait!

“I believe the choice was mine,” Chad says in a voice that, though quiet, is full of conviction. “I believe the events of my life prepared me for this day. I believe that before I came to Earth, I knew what was going to happen.”
That isn’t to say Chad doesn’t wish he could still walk.
“I’m looking forward to the day I can walk again,” Chad says. “If I could go back to work tomorrow, I’d be happy to bag groceries. If I could be out of this wheelchair, I would be.”
On the other hand, Chad knows the accident has taught Shondell and him to treasure life’s true joys.
“What really matters is caring for your family and enjoying the time you have together,” he said. “It’s important to have a positive attitude. It takes courage, but we should look at our trials and challenges with the conviction that we can make a positive out of a negative. We must understand that God hears our prayers, even though His answers may not be what we expect.”
Chad has also learned that when dreams are on the ground in a thousand shattered pieces, it helps to look at the situation through the eyes of a child. He’ll never forget a day soon after the accident, when he sat on a mat in a hospital room trying to balance himself.
The young father could literally feel his spirit sinking deeper and deeper into despair that day as he used all the physical strength he could muster to get his arms perpendicular to his body. Just as the feat was accomplished, Christian walked in.
With the unfeigned excitement that only a child would have at such a time, the little boy said, “Look, Daddy, you’re flying.”
That’s when Chad knew everything would be all right.
“Christian helped me understand something important,” Chad says. “Who needs legs, when you have wings?”

It was April 3, 2001 when Chad’s world — as he had known it — came to a screeching halt. On that fateful evening, Chad was trying to take down a bale of hay stacked three bales high. The hydraulics on the tractor were sticking and the bale wasn’t tilting correctly.
“I knew the tractor needed hydraulic fluid,” Chad said, “but I didn’t want to take time to fill it. I continued to fight with the lever.”
When the hydraulics suddenly gave, a one-ton hay bale slipped back onto the topless tractor, pinning Chad against the steering wheel.
“The hay snapped my neck,” Chad said. “My arms were dangling. I was in pain, but I also had no feeling in my arms and legs. I could barely move my shoulders up and down.”
Panic set in when Chad realized the hay bale was pushing his nose and mouth into his chest, making it impossible to breathe. Unable to move, Chad’s only way of getting more air was to bite a hole in the side of his cheek.
“I expected to be with my grandparents very shortly,” he said, “I thought, ‘Oh, God, this is it. This is my last moment on Earth.’”
During his struggle, the thought entered Chad’s mind that instead of fighting it would be so much easier to endure the pain of suffocation for a few moments, then lose consciousness and die. But just as quickly, images of Shondell and the boys popped into his mind and Chad knew he had to hang on.
After what seemed like an eternity, Chad saw a reflection of lights on the ground. His wife and sons had come looking for him.
As a horrified Shondell ran toward her husband, he tried to raise his shoulders to let her know he was alive. Shondell missed the cue.
Fearing Chad was dead, Shondell called 911. Help quickly arrived. As local EMTs worked to save Chad’s life, a medical helicopter was put in the air. Just before a hospital crew placed Chad on Life Flight, Shondell kissed her husband and made him vow that no matter what, he’d fight for his life.

When Chad arrived at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, doctors didn’t have good news. X-rays revealed that three of the seven vertebrae in his neck had been crushed.
Laureen Hymas, Chad’s mom, vividly remembers that night.
“Only a couple of hours before the accident, Chad had been at my home in West Jordan,” she said. “I fixed spaghetti and we watched the Jazz playoffs together. Chad then left for home to finish his chores.”
When Chad’s brothers Brian and Jeremy walked through their mother’s back door around 10 p.m. she could see they’d been crying.
With a trembling voice, Brian said, “Chad has been in an accident, Mom. They think his neck is broken. We have to get to the hospital.”
Arriving at the medical center, Laureen, Brian and Jeremy were ushered into the hospital chapel. A devout Catholic, Laureen knew the surroundings of stained glass windows and praying hands were a sign that things weren’t good.
“A doctor walked in and told us Chad was on his way to surgery,” Laureen recalls. “They were pretty sure Chad’s spinal cord had been severed. The doctor said my son would probably never walk again.”
Laureen still shudders as she talks about the first time she saw Chad following the accident.
“The doctors didn’t want him to move until the swelling around his brain had gone down,” she said. “Chad’s head was bolted to the wall in what they call a halo. His eyes were the only part of his body he could move.”
During the long days that followed, the Hymas family prayed with all their might. With the exception of Laureen, they are all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Chad’s name was put on Mormon temple prayer lists,” Laureen said. “Relatives on my side of the family were lighting candles and holding Catholic masses. My friend Robin, a Jehovah’s Witness, approached me one day and said, ‘Frankly, Laureen, you Catholics and Mormons aren’t getting the job done. Would you mind if our church included Chad in our prayer circle?’ I laughed and told her we needed all the help we could get.”

There were days during his hospital stay that Chad thought about ending his life. All that kept him from doing so, he told his parents, was the knowledge that Shondell would be the one to find him. How could he do that to his “life-long princess?”
It was the night of Chad’s 18th birthday that Shondell had boldly phoned and asked him for a date.
“We’ve been best friends since,” Chad says as he winks at the dark-haired beauty at his side.
From the beginning of the courtship, Chad and Shondell — who both played on West Jordan High School athletic teams — knew he’d soon leave Utah to serve a two-year mission for his church. Still, within two weeks of their first date, Shondell and Chad knew they’d found their eternal partner.
“I wrote Chad a letter expressing the feelings of my heart just days after we started dating,” Shondell said.
She chose, however, not to give the letter to Chad until he’d been called to serve his mission.
Before leaving for Thailand, Chad made a declaration of his own. He told Shondell if she was still single when he returned, he’d like to make her his wife.
After faithfully finishing his church service, Chad came home on Nov. 11, 1994. He proposed to Shondell that Christmas Eve, and the Salt Lake LDS Temple was the setting for their March 18, 1995 marriage.

Chad and Shondell built their first house on a one-acre parcel of land in Herriman. They bought a couple of elk with dreams of developing an elk preserve.
When the sport of elk hunting “took off,” Chad started looking for more land. He and his wife eventually purchased 40 acres in Rush Valley, which quickly expanded to 200 acres. Chad raised elk at the local ranch before transporting them to a preservation facility in Price, which he owns with his dad Kelly. Additionally, Chad was a real estate investor and also owned a business called Ace & Sons Landscaping.
Chad was a hard worker and financially, things were going well for the couple.
“The only problem was, Chad was gone from early morning until after dark,” says Shondell. “I sometimes felt I was raising the boys alone.”
Chad promised his wife, about a year prior to his accident, that he’d make an effort to be home more. True to his word, Chad started coming home each day by 2 p.m.
“I spent a lot of time with my sons during that last summer before my accident,” Chad said. “We’d ride horses or go for a walk in the fields. Sometimes I’d take Christian and Kyler up in the mountains, giving Shondell time to do the things she wanted to do.”
Looking back, Chad is sure it was more than fate which allowed him to create those memories with his sons.
“I kept my promise to Shondell and developed a stronger bond with her and the boys prior to my accident,” he said. “I’m so glad I played basketball with my sons and took them hiking while I still could.”
Other things happened during that year that Chad says were more than mere coincidence. For instance, Shondell, who always had trouble driving at night, had her eyes surgically corrected.
“Since my accident, Shondell has to drive everywhere we go,” Chad said. “Having her eyes corrected might seem like a small thing to others, but to us it’s a miracle.
Chad adds that there’s been plenty of other “little things” throughout his life which have prepared him for the monumental challenge he now faces.

At West Jordan High School during the early 1990s, Chad was what people call a “jock” — a popular kid with lots of friends and a great sense of self-esteem. Every day in the school cafeteria, he’d sit at a table with fellow football players and they’d all laugh and talk as they enjoyed one another’s camaraderie.
“A group of handicapped kids always sat at the table next to ours,” Chad said. “One girl at that table was named Melanie. She used a computer to talk and saliva was always drooling off her chin.”
One night, when Chad and his friends were in his basement bedroom, the guys started talking about Melanie and making fun of her. Unbeknownst to Chad, his dad was listening to their conversation on the other side of the closed door.
“After my friends left, Dad took me aside and told me a story,” Chad said. “Dad said that when he was in the 8th-grade, there had been a handicapped boy in his class. Kids made fun of that boy, too. When Dad was in 10th-grade, the boy killed himself.”
The next day during lunch, Chad was surprised to look up and see his dad walking through the lunchroom, heading straight for Melanie’s table. After introducing himself to the young lady, Kelly Hymas asked Melanie if she would like to go to the Malt Barn for a treat. When she nodded “yes,” Kelly looked at Chad and his friends and said, “I’d like you guys to come with us.”
As Kelly and the football players visited with Melanie that day, they learned a lot about her. From then on, she was their friend. And from that day forward, Chad had the greatest compassion and love for handicapped individuals.
Months prior to Chad’s accident, he and Shondell were in the process of adopting a handicapped girl.
“Shondell walked into my hospital room one day and found me sobbing,” Chad said. “I told her that because of my accident, we would no longer be eligible to adopt that little girl. I said to Shondell, ‘I’ll never be able to fulfill my dream of helping a handicapped child.’”
With wisdom beyond her years, Shondell laid her hand on Chad’s shoulder and looked him right in the eye as she said, “Don’t you see, sweetheart, you are now experiencing what has pierced your soul for so many years. You are now playing the role of a handicapped person.”

Another “miracle” which resulted from Chad’s accident was the friendship he developed with Art Berg.
A quadriplegic himself, Art was another young man who understood the pain of life. Back in 1983, Art had been en route to California to marry Dallas Howard, a former Utah Junior Miss, when he was involved in a head-on vehicle accident. The impact of the wreck left Art paralyzed.
Eighteen months after the accident, Art married Dallas and eventually wrote a book titled, Some Miracles Take Time, which became a regional best seller.
A world-class wheelchair athlete, Art played rugby and competed in marathons, including an ultra-marathon of 325 miles between Salt Lake City and St. George. He also became a sought-after motivational speaker. His audiences included Fortune 500 companies such as Coca-Cola and IBM.
In 2000, Art gave a speech about his favorite poem, Invictus, to the Baltimore Ravens. The team went on to use the poem as their inspiration, and awarded Art a Super Bowl ring after their 2001 victory.
While Chad was recovering from his accident, Art visited him in the hospital.
“I’ll never forget Art wheeling his chair into my room, getting out of it and onto a mat, and then undressing in front of me,” Chad said. “That was his way of telling me that I could again learn to take care of myself. He let me know that just because I was paralyzed, my life wasn’t over.”
Art passed away suddenly on Feb. 19, 2002, of an apparent reaction to pain medication. He was 39.
On Aug. 24, 2002, Chad will be wheeling his specially-made bike in a marathon to raise money for the Art Berg Foundation and the Spinal Cord Research Foundation. One hundred percent of the proceeds of that event will go to the foundations, which are working to find cures for ailments such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and other illnesses.
Donations for the marathon will be accepted until Aug. 24. Checks can be made out to Chad’s Marathon for Foundations and addressed to P.O. Box 187, Stockton, Utah 84071.
Deposits can also be made at any Wells Fargo branch.
Those donating a minimum of $100 will receive Art’s signed poster of the poem Invictus, which guided his life.
For more information about the Marathon, see page B7.

Like Art, Chad also has plans to be a wheelchair athlete. He’s already participating in basketball, rugby, wheelchair racing and he’s even officiated basketball games from his wheelchair.
Since being released from LDS Hospital last June, Chad has started to write a book titled, Who Needs Legs When You Have Wings, expected to be released next year. He’s also started Chad Hymas Communications, Inc., a professional speaking company designed to motivate businesses and corporations to “use their wings and reach seemingly impossible heights.”
Like Art, his mentor, Chad now spends several hours each week inspiring other individuals in therapy to overcome their challenges, to focus on their dreams and to love life for all it has to offer.
Additionally, as a member of the Tooele South LDS Stake High Council, Chad regularly offers talks at church meetings. His mom says that just last week alone, Chad was asked to speak in three wards — all on the same day.
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While Chad has done exceptionally well, life has been a definite uphill battle since the accident. He says he’ll never forget predictions made by others that, like 50 percent of those who endure such a devastating, life-altering event, his marriage could possibly end in divorce.
“It’s hard,” Chad says with candor, “when your wife has to do everything for you. I’m becoming more independent every day, but at first I couldn’t brush my own teeth, undress myself, or take care of other personal needs.”
For a long time, Chad didn’t feel he would ever again be the husband Shondell deserved. Then, he discovered an important truth.
“If I wake up in the morning and start complaining about the money I can no longer make, or the things I can no longer do, Shondell’s mood goes downhill,” Chad said. “On the other hand, when I wake up with a positive attitude, Shondell’s mood matches mine.”
Chad adds that as much as he loved Shondell before the accident, his love for her has increased tenfold in the last year.
“Shondell is truly amazing,” Chad said. “She plans family outings on an almost-daily basis. She also pushes me to greater heights. Although Shondell will do anything for me that I cannot do for myself, once I relearn a skill, she will no longer do that chore. Shondell has stepped up to the plate and shown me what she’s made of.”
Shondell and Chad also credit their best friends, Dano and Kristy Didericksen of Grantsville, for always being there for them.
“Dano designed my Internet web page,” Chad said. “Shondell, Christian, Kyler and I spend most of our Monday night Family Home Evenings with the Didericksens. They have become the best friends we have ever had.”

There’s a lot of things Chad can no longer do — things like playing “real” basketball on the family’s outdoor court with his sons. But the young father has learned to improvise.
“Christian, Kyler and I can still go out on the court and use a balloon to play ball,” he said with a smile. “We go for rides in the mountains. We go to movies together and we often go to the park.”
If someone offered Chad the chance to go back to the day before his accident and bypass all the agony he’s been through since that ton of hay snapped his neck, would he do it?
“No,” Chad says with conviction. “I do want to walk again and I’m working every day to reach that goal. But I wouldn’t trade the strength my family and I have gained, or the lessons we have learned because of the accident.”
Chad states again that even though he has loved his wife from the first time they dated, his love for Shondell is now stronger than ever. He also has a new appreciation for his parents, his stepmom, Terri Hymas, his brothers, and his sister Breanna. Shondell’s family has also rallied around Chad since the accident.
Then — as just a hint of a tear forms in Chad’s eyes, he swallows hard and adds — “We must understand that God hears our prayers, even though His answers may not be what we expect.”