Photographer Lynn Donaldson explores the identity of “farm wife” through the images of Tova Gerer.
PHOTOS BY LYNN DONALDSON
WORDS BY BELLA BUTLER
In the early 2000s, Darrell Gerer was chasing cows on his farm in Denton, Montana, when he rolled his four-wheeler and broke his back. Denton, a small town of around 200 people in central Montana, doesn’t have its own medical facility, but it does have the Denton Ambulance and the volunteer EMTs who run it around the clock for neighbors in need. After the accident, Darrell’s wife, Tova, watched gratefully as EMTs safely transported her husband to care.
“This is something I can do for my community,” Tova thought in a moment of opportunity that would eventually lead her to become an EMT—and later an Advanced EMT—and volunteer with the ambulance. It’s one of the many hats she wears: AEMT, farmer, wife, mother, grandmother, devoted daughter and daughter-in-law, former 4-H leader, friend and neighbor.
Tova and Darrell, who have been married for 35 years, together farm roughly 5,600 acres on land that was Darrell’s grandfather’s, growing hay feed, winter wheat, spring wheat and lentils, and raising red Angus cattle. True to a farm, everyone does a little bit of everything, but Tova specifically drives the semi, combine and hay rake. She runs the sprayer, fixes fence, feeds cows and helps calve. It’s good work, and it’s hard work.
In the following gallery, photographer Lynn Donaldson, who grew up on a farm in Denton, explores the identity of “farm wife” through a spread of images that captures just a sliver of the involvement and dedication Tova applies to the world around her. Small towns run on people like Tova, who see others doing remarkable things and think about what they can do for their community. Small towns get their resilient character from people like Tova, who says: “You do what you gotta do to try and survive on the farm, which is getting harder and harder to do. The margins are getting tighter, and it’s just you gotta do what you gotta do.” Small towns are made communities by people like Tova, who when asked about her service as a volunteer EMT, uses the space to offer thanks for the support that led to the purchase of the new Denton Ambulance. In Donaldson’s photos, we hope readers can glimpse not only the life of one woman, but the community she makes possible.
The Gerers’ cattle cluster while munching on feed. Tova graduated from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, with a degree in Agriculture Business in 1990. She raises red Angus cattle, implementing her own system of tagging which enables her to track the cow line using a letter that designates the breeder they come from and a unique number to individually ID them at a glance.
LEFT: Tova poses with her 2001 International Semi, which she uses to haul grain 51 miles away to the United Grain elevator in Moccasin, Montana. RIGHT: Tova feeds her 2024 replacement heifers creep pellets once a day, and they have free choice hay.
LEFT: Tova helps her mom Helen Lodman into a sling following her recent shoulder replacement surgery as Lodman’s dog Copper supervises. Being 30 miles from Lewistown, home health services are limited in Denton, so Tova has taken on the responsibility of checking on her mom and helping with meals and tasks several times throughout the day. Lodman’s home received significant smoke damage after the Denton Fire of 2021, and she and her dog and cat had to move in with Tova and Darrell for 14 months during restoration. RIGHT: Tova, a volunteer AEMT (advanced EMT) for the Denton Ambulance crew since 2012, shows off the new ambulance the Denton community generously donated to help replace the old one. With a lean crew, the new power stretcher enables a single crew member to load a patient solo.
Tova shares a laugh with her hair stylist and colorist Scott Anderson—owner of New Image Salon in Stanford, Montana, where Tova has been a client since 1994—as Anderson’s father Don “Andy” Anderson looks over his schedule. Andy also owned a satellite barber shop in Denton but closed that space a few years ago after celebrating his 40th anniversary cutting hair there.
Tova and Darrell’s farmhouse located a few miles north of Denton is backed by the Highwood Mountains (pictured). Round Butte and Square Butte sit just out of frame at the northeast end of the Highwoods; the Little Belts and Snowy Mountains anchor the panorama to the south, while the North and South Moccasin and Judith ranges stretch to the east. Tova grew up on her family ranch between Lewistown and Moore, while both sides of Darrell’s family have ranched near Denton for five generations. The couple took over part of Darrell’s family’s place in 1991 and the rest in 2010.
LEFT: Darrell’s mother Marlene Gerer touches up the trim on Our Savior Lutheran Church in Denton, where her parents and grandparents worshiped and which her dad helped build in 1951. Marlene is also a lifelong artist whose scenic and wildlife paintings grace the walls of most central Montana homes. RIGHT: Like an antique GPS, signs like this one on Alton Road in Denton, pointing the way to Everson on the left and Bear Springs on the right, adorn many rural intersections, stating family surnames and the mileage to their respective homes. Made by 4H clubs, this was constructed by Denton’s Sunnyside Shiners (a club that’s well over 100 years old) and was refurbished when Tova and Darrell’s kids were in high school around 2010.
Denton’s primary street, Broadway, is anchored by the North Moccasin Mountains in the distance. Broadway is also Montana Highway 81. A town of roughly 200 people, Denton’s been Tova’s home since she married Darrell in 1992.
Photojournalist Lynn Donaldson, a 1988 graduate of Denton High School, grew up on the farm her great-grandparents homesteaded and has known Tova and Darrell Gerer and their parents all her life. Donaldson now resides with her husband and three children in Livingston but still considers Denton home. “Those wheat fields and wide-open skies are in my blood; it’s an extremely beautiful corner of the world and and extremely beautiful way of life rooted in faith, family, community and service.
Bella Butler is the managing editor of Mountain Outlaw.
