I Sold 300 Head of Cattle to Pay for My Wife’s Cancer Treatment. Twelve Years Later, the Woman Who Bought Them Came Back

My name is Gus Lindqvist. I’m 72 years old, and I’ve lived my whole life on a cattle ranch outside Big Timber, Montana.

For forty years, this place had three things: grass, cattle and Karin.

Then, in the spring of 2014, it had only grass.

Let me tell you how that happened.

Karin was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January. The doctors in Billings were honest with us. Without treatment, maybe six months. With an experimental treatment at a cancer center in Seattle, maybe more.

Maybe a lot more.

We had health insurance. We’d paid the premiums every single month for thirty years, even in the bad cattle years when we ate beans for supper.

The insurance company denied the claim.

“Experimental.” “Out of network.” “Not medically necessary.”

I read that letter so many times the paper went soft.

We appealed. We hired a patient advocate. We wrote to our congressman. The appeal process was going to take months.

Karin didn’t have months.

So I did the only thing a rancher can do when he needs money fast.