Barnesville Pulls Together to Help Molly Greiff

While undergoing physical therapy in Colorado, friends in her hometown come together to help

BARNESVILLE, Minn. — A small town is helping a family in need after a freak accident changed a young woman’s life.

Parents said Molly Greiff, a 25-year-old from Barnesville, is still in rehab after breaking her back on October 15th.

She’s known for her high spirits and hard work ethic.

“Molly’s very energetic,” explained her father, Adrian Greiff. “She likes people. Just a good kid.”

While visiting a friend in Linton, North Dakota, Molly fell from a high loft.

“Rolled backwards off of a platform about ten feet down onto her back and shoulders,” Adrian said. “Broke her back, hit her head real bad.”

For 15 days, Molly laid in a Bismarck hospital bed, trying to put the pieces together after suffering from brain damage.

“I don’t think the reality of her injuries have kind of set in yet,” said her mother, Sarah Greiff. “It’s just hard to tell if it’s really dawned on her.”

They told us she’s paralyzed from the waist down.

“The hardest thing for me is when she first realized that she couldn’t feel her legs and she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t sit up and why she couldn’t move,” Sarah said.”And I… you know, your heart just sinks.”

When things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse, life for Molly started getting better.

She was flown to Colorado for physical therapy where she’s starting to re-learn.

“Just getting up to the sink, getting in a chair,” her mother said. “All the things you take for granted that we can already do, she has to start over. My mom is there and she’s been cheerleading away, coaching her on things to do.”

To help with finances, friends put on a benefit and silent auction at The 34 without being asked by family members.

In what many call a tight knit community, hundreds showed up to celebrate Molly’s recovery.

“You don’t really know how many people are thinking about you until you need their help and by the looks of it, it looks like we’re getting a lot of help,” said Molly’s Uncle, James Nelson.

The road to recovery will be long for Molly, but the people of Barnesville are doing whatever they can to help her make it through.

If you would like to help, click here.