BROOKSTON, Ind. — Thinking and living outside the box always has been Hubert Von Holten‘s personal motto.

When he was five years old, Polio sentenced him to a life in a wheelchair. But, before one feels sorry for Von Holten, it is important to realize his fate has given him a fulfilling, active life.

He has done twice as much before retirement than most people do in an entire lifetime. His wisdom also has helped countless other people, who otherwise would not have had the hope to conquer their own barriers.

With the help of Bill Field with Purdue University’s Breaking New Ground program, Von Holten started manufacturing lifts to help disabled people into machinery and campers, onto horses or, as Von Holten likes to say, “to swing on your favorite chandelier if that is what you wanted.”

Von Holten’s company, Life Essentials, has grown tremendously throughout the 18 years it has been in business. But, before he could start this one-of-a-kind business venture, Von Holten was educated through the school of hard knocks.

Growing up in Chicago, Von Holten’s father never thought of his son as having a disability. He worked by scrubbing floors for blind people.

When the braces would make holes in his jeans, his father simply told him he needed to work more to make up for the added cost. When the elder Von Holten moved the family to a farm, all of his sons were expected to do the same amount of work.

“I was expected to milk the same amount of cows (as my brothers). I drove tractors and scooped manure. I didn’t get any breaks,” Von Holten laughed.

While this may sound harsh on his father’s part, Von Holten said he has never thought of himself as disabled. Even though society told him he could not farm for a living, he decided to pursue the field anyway.

Unfortunately, he said, buying machinery proved to be more difficult than having to climb up into it using only his hands. The first dealer he visited turned him away.

“He said ‘What the hell are you thinking about farming for?’” Von Holten recalled, describing how the man told Von Holten he could not walk and, therefore, could not get into a tractor.

Von Holten said he thanked the man and went to the dealer across the road. That dealer did not discourage him, he said, and was rather happy to show him the various machinery.

“The difference between the dealers was the second one sold me seven new combines,” Von Holten said. “Never prejudge somebody.”

While managing a 460-acre corn, soybean and wheat farm, young Von Holten also did 1,500 acres of custom work every year.

He would use his upper body strength to host himself up on the machinery. However, as the years, went by this became more difficult.

“As I got older, I got a little slower. I wish I would have made life easier. Now, (my body) is just wore out,” he said.

“It was all due to the fact that I was too proud to admit it would have been easier to have equipment modified,” he said. “But, back then, nobody did that anyway.”

After farming for several years, Von Holten decided to move onto other ventures. He worked various other jobs before teaming up with Fields and starting Life Essentials.

However, at first, it did not seem like a match made in heaven. When Field first came to him, Von Holten said he put off getting involved with the project.

“The first time I asked him, he thought it was kind of silly,” Field said. “At that time, he still could pull himself up on the tractors.”

Field noted that, over time, he saw Von Holten’s attitude change, as he could not get around as easily.

“But now, he puts his heart and soul into this,” Field said.

Field and Von Holten built a lift for a farmer in Pennsylvania, whose family would put him into the tractor using the same skid loader the cow manure was scooped with.

“They literally would just pick him up, tip the bucket and he would slide off right into the tractor — cow manure and everything,” Von Holten said.

But that farmer knew there had to be a better way, he said. He also knew he wanted to be active on his farm, he said.

“The farmer still had to be involved in his farm, not sit in his house,” said Life Essentials owner Kathy Smith.

She bought the company from Von Holten about six mouths ago. But the two still work closely together.

Primitive designs from almost two decades ago were not as effective as Von Holten would have liked. That lead him to strive to custom build lifts to fit each person’s individual’s needs, lifts that are cost efficient, effective and easy to use.

The early lifts got a person from point A to point B, Von Holten said. But the designs now have gotten much more complex. Robotic arms can place the person in the tractor cab or wherever he or she needs to be.

They also are not just for tractors. Lifts can be made for any type of machinery, Smith said. Life Essentials has made lifts for berry pickers, semi-trailers and log loaders — “anything that someone who is handicapped needs to have access to,” Smith explained.

She and Von Holten said the demand for these lifts keeps them busy all year, especially as more and more disabled people are going back to work instead of staying home.

Von Holten added it is much easier for a self-employed disabled person to keep working than a person who works for someone else. A person who works in a factory, for example, may have problems with the facility being handicapped accessible, he said.

“We work with people who want to continue but lack the knowledge or experience of being handicapped,” Von Holten said. “They look to people who have had experience.”

Field also noted demand for the equipment exists. But, he stressed, what is important is the fact that physically challenged people now have more options than ever before.

“In a day when we can put people on the moon, disabled people should be able to drive a tractor,” he said.

Von Holten and Smith said they will take on a client throughout the United States or Canada. After phone consultations, the duo then will personally deliver the lift to the person, and they will stay for a period of time and make sure the person knows how to use the lift safely before they move on.

“There is nobody else in the country that does this,” Smith said.

Other areas Von Holten counsels farmers in is what kind of wheelchair they use. The push wheelchairs, according to Von Holten, are one of the most demoralizing items a disabled person could have.

He said he first asks the person if their therapist who recommended the farmer be in a push wheelchair has been out to the farm. He said he has met some farmers who could not even make it two feet out into a field because of their wheelchair.

With the proper motorized wheelchair, however, the farmer can be much more mobile and active on the farm, Von Holten said.