To get into his deer stand, Derek Marshik first puts his 2017 Chevy Silverado 1500 with a three-inch lift and dual-piped exhaust into the “park” position and presses a series of hand controls that releases a heavy-duty lift arm that swings over to his driver’s side door. He then uses his upper body strength to propel himself out of the truck and into the waiting wheelchair.
From there, he maneuvers over to a sleek-designed deer stand that a near-and-dear neighbor, Kevin Poster, built for him. The stand has a platform on it that allows Derek to be raised and lowered using a drill and pulley cable system from an old silage unloader.
“This helped Derek realize that his disability doesn’t have to stop him from doing what he loves,” said his mom, Kristi Marshik. “It has just forced him to become more creative in figuring out how to continue his passions.”
The 8’x8’ deer stand was custom made. Kristi said it is roomy enough to accommodate a wheelchair and another chair for anyone that may want to hunt along with Derek.
Derek’s father, Gregg, recognized that “Derek is not a guy that likes to stay in one spot too long,” so he fashioned a mobile stand that Derek could use when he wanted to hunt in a place other than the stationery stand.
Gregg took an old TMR mixer and made a base out of it, then welded a Tommy Lift and built a bigger platform and railings onto it that folds up so that it can be moved to various spots. Gregg said his goal was to give Derek a stand that would “allow him to go wherever he wanted to go without worrying about his limitations.” He wanted him to have the same opportunities as any other hunter out there.
As Derek watches for the “big one” from his stand, one may think he has something to prove. After all, one of those woodland creatures is the reason he is in that wheelchair. A serious four-wheeler accident at age 20 left him paralyzed from the chest down.
“He left our home that summer evening in July after discussing the events of his day,” Kristi recalled. “He rode off on his four-wheeler like he did many times. Roughly 20 minutes after he left, my cell phone rang with a call coming in from him. I will never forget the words that came next. ‘Mom, I’m just calling to tell you I love you and that I’m dying!’ These are words that a parent never wants to hear and will forever be burned into me.”
Kristi, without even putting shoes on, fled to the scene. About a mile-and-a-half from home on a gravel road, a deer had popped out of the ditch and T-boned Derek while on the four-wheeler.
Kristi sat with him in the ditch, trying to keep him comfortable until medical personnel arrived. Derek was airlifted to the St. Cloud Hospital and then transferred to Hennepin County Medical Center. His injuries included two collapsed lungs, broken ribs and a spinal cord injury. He spent a total of roughly 90 days in ICU and inpatient rehab.
But according to Derek’s friends, including retired priest Father Ken Popp, Derek rarely has a negative thing to say and has never complained about the cards he’s been dealt.
“It’s actually a very spiritual thing to watch him move from place to place,” Father Popp said. “He does it with such grace. Always joyful. Never complaining.”
Father Popp has known Derek and his family for many years; Kristi believes Derek was in about fourth or fifth grade when they first met.
“Our family met Father Popp when he was assigned to be the new priest at St. Michael Parish in Buckman. He immediately took to our family, and a bond was created that we never knew at the time would be so strong. He became like a member of our family.”
Father Popp, who often joked with Derek before the accident about someday getting out hunting together, vividly remembers getting the call from Derek’s brother, Jesse, that Derek had been injured.
“He asked me if I could come right away and I did,” Father Popp said. “It was a tough drive to the hospital. I anointed him and prayed with them. None of us knew what was going to happen.”
Kristi said that their family will forever be grateful to Father Popp for being with them through it all.
“He provided a listening ear to me when I was upset and had an extremely hard time understanding how God could let something like this happen to such an incredibly kind and sweet boy,” she said.
“He counseled me and helped me to take my questions to God. He encouraged me to ask him to provide the acceptance I needed so that I could be the most positive person I could be to help Derek move forward after an event that changed every aspect of his life.”
The accident wasn’t Derek’s first experience with physical challenges. In second grade, he was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.
“The doctors said I needed to have surgery on my right ankle,” Derek remembered. “I was very scared as a young child hearing the word ‘surgery.’ My mom sat me down and told me about St. Therese of the Little Flower. She told me that if you pray with her, roses would appear. I said many prayers before my surgery hoping to receive a rose.”
On the day of his surgery as he was walking through the hospital doors, he felt something sticking to the bottom of his shoe.
“Thinking it was just a rock, I took off my shoe, and, to my surprise, there was a rose earring stuck into the bottom of it. From that day forward, I have always [asked for her intercession] when I need a little extra help.”
Last year, Derek was cutting brush in the woods, mowing an area with tall grass and small trees that hadn’t been touched in many years.
“I was almost done when I backed up and noticed a group of rose heads all laying perfectly in a pile, completely undamaged or touched. I could not believe my eyes. A machine that will turn a six-inch tree into sawdust with blades spinning fast enough to throw a rock further than you can see, did no damage to this pile of fresh, real roses.”
Derek called his mom immediately to come and look.
“I will never forget the look on Mom’s face when she said, ‘Do you know what day it is?’ This happened on July 7, 2024, the six-year anniversary date of my accident. All I can think is that St. Therese had to place them there for me to find. She must have known I needed that extra reminder that she is still there with me.”
When Father Popp retired in 2023, the Marshik family was thankful that he decided to settle in the Buckman area where, according to the Marshiks, “so many have grown to love him.”
Time, along with the bond they have formed, provided the space for Derek, Jesse and Father Popp to finally make it out to the deer stand together this fall.
“He came to the hospital to visit me from time to time and helped me keep my faith in a difficult time,” Derek said. “When he told me that he had never harvested a deer and one day he would like to do so, I made it my goal to do whatever it took to get him his first deer. It was the least I could do after everything he has done for me.”
For all of them, this year’s hunting trip will be a lasting memory.
“I will never forget his prayers that night in the deer stand,” Derek said. “Father prayed with St. Hubert [the patron saint of deer hunters] and asked him, that if he felt he should get a deer, that he intercede to God. Within seconds, a buck walked out of the woods and out in front of us. Then, once he fired, he was unsure of where the buck went after he was hit. Father again prayed, this time with St. Anthony [the patron saint of lost things]. He prayed that my brother, Jesse, would be able to find the deer. Before Father finished his prayer, Jesse called on his cell phone and said, ‘I found him!’”
Father Popp shot his first buck, and it was no ordinary one, either.
“This deer had only one antler,” Father Popp said. “But its markings indicated that this guy was a fighter.”
And that deer, though perhaps outwardly different from others like him, reminded Father Popp of Derek’s unbreakable spirit.
“He has a lot of support around him with his family and friends. But what is so special about him is that he is so joy-filled. He trusts so much in God. And when people see him come to Mass and wheel himself up the aisle for communion, you just know that he is a witness of that joy to others.”
Above photo: Father Ken Popp, left, poses with his first buck ever, along with the Marshik brothers, Jesse, center, and Derek, right. (Photo submitted)