Photo by Tom Campbell

Sue Alexander (center) — with husband, Tim, and two of their three children, Megan, 26 (story author), and Mark, 18 — is the first recipient of the Indiana Women in Agriculture Award.

It's 7:30 a.m. and breakfast is on the table. Two cups of black coffee steam under the soft kitchen light. Tim and Sue Alexander, my father and mother, sit at the table talking over the day's agenda. They're in the middle of harvest season, so talk revolves around the logistics of who will move what machinery where and when in order to keep harvest running smoothly from field to field. By all accounts, it's a normal fall morning for a normal farm family.

Then again, that depends on your definition of "normal." My dad is a quadriplegic with no feeling or movement from below his shoulders, and my mom, well, she's Superwoman. Her morning began about three hours earlier with the demanding routine of moving dad through his daily arm and leg exercises, getting him dressed, shaved and ready to face the hired hands before they walk in the backdoor. She does the work of a part-time nurse while most people are still hitting the snooze buttons on their alarm clocks.

Photo by Tom Campbell

Sue Alexander accepts the first Indiana Women in Agriculture Award from Randy Woodson, dean of Purdue Agriculture.

It's that selfless dedication, day after day, that spurred me to nominate my mom for the first ever IndianaWomen in Agriculture Award, which she was presented with during the Indiana State Fair in August.

Purdue Extension and Indiana AgriNews established the award to recognize a Hoosier woman who has excelled and played an important role in any agricultural field, from production farming to ag economics. When mom learned that she would be the first woman to win the award, she went through a series of emotions — confusion, disbelief, and later, a few tears. When the realization settled in, I remember her saying, "I just think it's neat that the first award went to an ordinary farmwife."

That's typical. Over the past 13 years, I've had the privilege of witnessing just how extraordinary my mom truly is. Not only is she a successful real estate agent, farm manager and committed community volunteer in Winamac, Ind., but she also is a living example of the giving, selfless wife and mother I hope to be someday.

Mom and dad were childhood sweethearts, graduating together from Winamac High School in 1975, then attending Purdue University. Sue majored in farm business management, while Tim studied ag economics. They married before their senior year, and after graduating in 1979, moved back home to manage the family's purebred, seedstock hog operation, with hopes of increasing their 40 acres of farmland.

Tim and Sue as Purdue undergrads in 1977.

During these quiet morning coffees, they like to reminisce about those frugal early years of hand-me-down furniture, nights of ramen noodle suppers, and farm equipment just a breakdown away from the scrap heap. Healthy profits didn't come quickly, especially in 1980 when the birth of their only daughter happened to coincide with a stifling drought. Similar droughts would come along in 1983 and in 1988, the same years their sons, Jim and Mark, were born.

But slowly and steadily, they increased their farm operation together. Dad was out the backdoor before dawn and trudged home dirty and tired long after we'd had supper. And mom worked just as hard. I can remember doing homework next to her as we bounced along in a loud grain truck hauling corn from the field to the elevator. I can picture her, hair pulled back and sleeves rolled to her shoulders, easily unloading pallets of seed corn bags that I could barely drag across the ground. Their farm was a partnership, and by the summer of 1993, they'd built up the original 40 acres to a total of 1,800 acres of corn and soybeans.