My name is Edward Rook. I suppose the story begins when I moved from Virginia to Rockford, Illinois in April 2013 to attend the Reformers Unanimous Men's School of Discipleship. That program was to help people who had fallen into the trap of drug addiction and give them the tools to become free using the teachings of the Bible and community ties in the church. After a successful year-long program, and some sober time behind me, I made friends with a man named Rob Felse. I was still unable to afford a car, but Rob let me use a small Nissan truck of his in exchange for various minor work tasks that he needed done. The first project he gave me was to move large rounds of elm wood from a rental property he owned, and drive them up to his property in the country outside of town.
Each day at lunch I would leave my office job in my shirt and tie, and load up logs onto the back of that little truck. Then after work was over I would drop them off at his small riverfront property. It was a great joy to me that I had a "country task" where I was able to test my strength at something more useful than lifting weights. After a few weeks I had moved the entire pile of logs- (you see, they were all left on the property after he had a large tree removed.) He later asked me if I would be willing to split the logs over a weekend if he rented a log splitter from Lincoln Rental. I was more than excited at any chance to run a machine. I really had very limited experience on this kind of thing but I guess you could say the desire had always been in me. Perhaps it came from the stories my grandfather used to tell, when he would talk about farm life as a boy in rural Ohio.
Whatever the source of that motivation was, it gave me the will to perform that log splitting work over the whole weekend! The pile of firewood was enormous. (The picture below is just a small part of the wood that we split.) When it was all done, Rob told me I could go ahead and sell the wood, and just to give him half the proceeds. I agreed to that, and he advised that a good price would be about $80 per truckload. That truck was quite small, as you can see in the picture, so I would stack the load into the truck carefully to fit the most wood possible for the customers.
The firewood was very popular, and just from a Craigslist ad and some paper signs I printed at the office and nailed to some poles around town at various street corners, I was getting calls for firewood every day or two! Most of the wood was sold within about a month, and it was a very exciting time in my life! I had discovered there was a way to make money that I really thought was a tremendous profit. I had never earned more than $15/hr in any job, and I could deliver firewood once and have enough money to get groceries for a few days.
Some time passed, and Rob and I decided go separate ways after our successful little business venture. I was still living at the ministry property of Reformers Unanimous, and continued working as administrative assistant there for a few more months. Leaving that job, I decided to pursue firewood as a continued source of income. I borrowed a chainsaw from a gentleman who attended the same church, and after I purchased a Dodge Dakota at Kar Korner, I began using it to deliver firewood that I was cutting on people's properties whenever I could get permission.
The truck had a powerful V8 engine that quickly got me into trouble. Ten days after purchase I unfortunately wrecked it in a head-on collision on Spring Creek Road near N Lyford Road. I was in a terrific hurry to get a load of firewood to a customer's house in the Poplar Grove area, and was attempting to pass a vehicle which was traveling about 60mph. I reached a passing speed of about 80mph but the oncoming traffic was very close, and as I veered back into my own lane again, the back end of the truck lifted up on a thin snow drift that had built up on the center line of the roadway. I felt the truck begin spinning to the right, and I began turning the wheel to compensate- when the truck wheels regained full traction in my lane, the truck was at least 45 degrees off course, but the wheel was turned all the way to the left and as soon as those tires gripped, the entire truck steered directly into oncoming traffic. I struck the first car on the driver's side front quarter and continued to spin, the rear end ultimately crashing into the next oncoming car. My truck was ANNIHILATED!
I had just purchased a mocha frappuchino at Starbucks on Perryville Rd, and as soon as the truck spun to a stop and the airbag deflated from around my face, I attempted to reach for my drink. The cup was not in the cupholder, and the drink was literally sprayed in all directions onto every surface in the truck. I still recall that disappointed feeling. I leapt out of the truck and immediately went to the first car I saw. I don't remember what kind of car it was but the man who was in the front seat was moving and angry, and he was attempting to get himself together and get out. I asked him if he was ok and I faintly recall him calling me a f*****g idiot, which of course I richly deserved considering my foolhardly driving behavior. There was an older lady in a minivan who was driving the second vehicle, and she was far more shocked from the accident. I was shamed and embarrassed by my actions that day, but I learned to never underestimate the hazard of the roadways in Illinois.
That event could have been the end of my firewood business, but I still had clients! I continued to split wood by getting rides from people to the places where I had permission to cut trees. I split the firewood by hand with a maul and wedges, and continued to do all the cutting with a borrowed Stihl chainsaw. Once there was a good sized pile, I would call a customer and inform them that the wood was ready for pickup. If they did not have a truck I would hire someone with a truck to come pick up the deliveries for $20. It was not too hard to find people for that. Many customers were surprised that I was doing that work by hand without machinery.
One day after I had just delivered a load of firewood, I asked my driver to drop me off at Jimmy John's on 173. As I enjoyed their #9 "Italian Night Club", a man walked into the restuarant and stated loudly into the room, "Someone is going to steal that chainsaw!"
I replied, "I'm keeping an eye on it!" And that was the beginning of a friendship that changed the course of my life forever. The man's name was Shawn Whitfield, and he was the owner of a header die shop in Machesney Park. We spoke at length over the phone for several days, and he asked all about my life and my story.
He took me to the store and purchased an entire cartful of groceries for me, and drove me back to the Men's Home where I still lived as a resident, where I stockpiled all those food items into my room anywhere they would fit. I gave him the phone number of the Dean of Men, who he asked how he could best help me. In the end he decided to purchase me a brand new Stihl MS271 chainsaw. He gave it to me as a gift, and made me promise if I ever came upon hard times and needed to sell it, that I would sell it to him. Shawn also hired me to come work on firewood and wood cutting at his property. His woodpile is pictured below.
That chainsaw was the beginning of Easy Eddy's Tree Service. I may not have really been in business at the time, but I had something of my very own that would open up the world of oppourtunity for me. All that came into my life through the good will of someone who gave willingly without expectation of return. And his charity imprinted on my heart that I too could be the blessing that changes someone's life forever.
