South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recounted that after her father was killed in a farming accident in 1994, she found a tape recorder in his truck that provided her with the answers she needed as she took over operations of the family business at age 22.
“A couple of months after he was killed, I finally got the courage to clean out his pickup. If you have a farmer or rancher in your life, you know that they often live out of their pickups. Everything important can be found in the cab,” Noem tweeted Wednesday.
A couple of months after he was killed, I finally got the courage to clean out his pickup. If you have a farmer or rancher in your life, you know that they often live out of their pickups. Everything important can be found in the cab. (4/)
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) March 10, 2021
Among a collection of pens, a Baby Ruth candy bar, and notebooks, she found “a tiny tape recorder, like the kind that a doctor dictates into.”
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“I pushed the play button and heard my dad’s voice.”
“My eyes started to fill up with tears,” she wrote. “I looked down into the console and saw several more tapes, almost a dozen in all. One by one, I put them in the tape recorder and listened to dad talk about crop decisions, soil types, cows, weather, markets, and what to do if we were ever in a tough financial situation.”
She then realized that “here in my hands were all the answers that I needed. Straight from him. In his voice.”
In that moment, I felt a strange sort of peace settle over me. Scripture talks about a “peace that passes all understanding.” It was almost as if God was saying to me, “I will provide. Stop worrying. You will be okay. Your family will be okay. I’ve got this.” (9/)
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) March 10, 2021
Noem said that her father “was the hardest worker that I knew.”
“He led by example, by action. But that day, his words changed everything. I made a decision that day to be like my dad: a person of words and of action, because both matter.”
She added that this is why she ran for office.
“I am committed to always serving the people of this great state with both words and action. I will do what I say, and I will always tell you what I’m doing.”
Her comments come on the one-year anniversary of South Dakota diagnosing its first five coronavirus cases, as well as the 27th anniversary of when her father died after a grain bin entrapment accident.
Noem resisted locking down her state during the pandemic, which earned her condemnation from Democratic leaders and the media, but high praise from conservatives within the Republican Party.
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On Wednesday, she reiterated that her “heart breaks for each” family who has lost loved ones during the pandemic but said South Dakotans “are so much tougher” than the pain they faced in 2020.
“But no matter how tough the past year was, South Dakotans are so much tougher. And that toughness has gotten us through this marathon, together. May God bless you and your family in 2021,” she concluded.
