Nels and Betsy Hadden on a boat ride. 

Nels Hadden with two grandchildren, Nov. 2021

Nels William Hadden, co-founder of Accessible Walla Walla and a passionate local advocate for accessibility, has died.

Hadden, often called "Eastern Oregon's Good Samaritan," died on Feb. 10, 2023. He was 60.

Hadden spent the last 14 years as a quadriplegic, following a tragic accident when he was hit on Interstate 84 on Jan. 26, 2008.

While stopped to assist another driver by placing flares on the icy highway, Hadden was struck by an out-of-control car driving at 55 mph.

The accident resulted in paralysis from the chest down for Hadden, then living in Milton-Freewater.

With his wife Betsy Hadden, he spent 13 months in hospitals undergoing 50 surgeries for a torn aorta, breaks in every rib, punctured lungs, crushed lower legs and left arm, a broken pelvis and lacerated liver and spleen.

His death leaves “a big hole,” Betsy Hadden said on Feb. 25.

“He died very unexpectedly,” she said.

His condition had been deteriorating over the past three to four years, she said. “He was super tired, just so tired. Between that and the pain, it was just really hard on him and he just went to sleep.”

“But he died in his sleep the way he wanted. At home. It’s going to leave a big hole in our family and in the community.”

“It has been overwhelming but comforting at the same time. It is hard to explain the pain I feel. I have lost my husband twice, once from an accident and now through death,” Betsy wrote on Facebook.

“Some days it is too large of a lump to swallow. But I am forever grateful for the special love and bond that Nelsy and I had in our 33-plus years together. This feeling will never go away. I feel very fortunate for that.”

His shoulder, injured in the accident, couldn’t be repaired and his pain was chronic, she said.

“Gravity takes over and he was in so much pain. He got COVID a year ago in January. I don’t know how he got COVID as we were so locked down for the last year. He recovered from it, but was declining and was in sepsis, which started the spiral,” she said.

Further battles in the hospital with pneumonia occurred in April and May 2022. In October while Betsy was in Hawaii he was ill again and she took a red-eye flight home.

“He just never did really well and lost a lot of weight.”

However, life since the accident was good, she said.

“Nelsy tried not to let the accident define him. When we were in Craig Hospital in Colorado, I got him a hunting system and fishing system. He went hunting again.

“Gary Parsons from here learned about Nels and wanted to help him.

He built this ‘Taj Mahal of hunting blinds’ for Nels. He shot I don’t know how many deer up there with his chair,” she said.

She bought him adaptive bowling equipment to attach to his wheelchair from I can Bowl.

"You put the ball on there, then he would line it up, drive it and then when he stopped the ball would drop. He used the fishing system but with the sipper puffer it was more complicated, puff to cast, sip to reel it in and it was really hard for him,” she said.

“We tried to do as much as we could from our old life and not let this define him,” she said. “He was really big on encouraging people to keep on going and to live.”

She scouted around for wheelchair-accessible activities. They loved to cruise and took an accessible pontoon ride on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

They met other patients and families while at Craig Hospital and after his treatment there she organized a cruise in Alaska with that group.

She won Seahawks tickets and they took a friend from Spokane to a game. Nels was an avid fan of the Seattle football team, surely a member of the 12th Man.

“The game was great as it was indoors and they can’t regulate their body heat. I just really tried to make life better for him and advocate for him,” she said.

The nursing shortage during the pandemic meant the family jumped in to help. Among the hats Betsy has worn she lists “chief medical director at Hadden Estate” in her “about” details on Facebook.

In that role, she helped with and oversaw home operations to ensure Nels had the best care.

Over the 14 years home health carers worked with Nels they became like family, she said.

“Nels living his life to the fullest was also due to our fantastic nurses,” Betsy said.

“They were the ones that took them up into the mountains, and they were the ones that were always with him hunting, fishing or just taking a drive so he could look for animals. They really were his lifeline. The nurses were very much a key to his everyday life.”

Much assistance also came from the Haddens’ son and daughter-in-law, Will Hadden and Selena Parlor, who moved in along with their daughter and son, Avah and Leif. Will’s son Elias Garcia regularly visits.

“His grands keep him going and keep him fighting through his chronic pain,” Betsy posted. “The grands make Nelsy happy. Some days it is hard for him to fight through the pain. But the grands help him find the bright spot.”

“Last year was extremely hard on Nels because of the pain and Will helped. And Nels wanted the grandkids close,” Betsy Hadden said.

Nels Hadden with two grandchildren, Nov. 2021

The couple’s daughter Chelsie Hadden lives in Liberty Lake, Washington, with her partner, Preston Woods.

Chelsie visited a lot over the years, she said. Although her dad had 24-hour nursing care, there were times when she drew on training to help with bed baths and changing devices.

“My dad was literally the best human I know. That’s the whole reason he got hurt was stopping to help someone and he paid the price for that,” Chelsie Hadden said.

“When anyone needed him, he was there. He was always making sure I was OK even when he was in the hospital. He put people before himself, it was always prevalent.

“I try to be a very caring person, strive to be like my dad. He was so good and so genuine, so he always did good.”

She said because of his situation, statistics showed an early death was inevitable.

“But he seemed invincible. When he was sick he always came out of it.”

“He put so much fight into living his life. He was so strong and fought so hard. Navigating the world without him is the worst thing I’ve gone through.

“We Facetimed almost every day, even when he was out walking the dog. It sucks not having him here any longer.”

He got hurt when Chelsie was preparing to go to Whitworth University.

Nels’ doctors wrote to Whitworth about his health to help with Chelsie’s college funding and made clear he wouldn’t live long, she said.

Her parents’ project to make things accessible for all is so needed everywhere she said.

“Most businesses comply with (Americans with Disabilities Act) rules, but they haven’t been updated to what they really need to be. He didn’t like going out because he didn’t know what obstacles he needed to navigate,” Chelsie said.

“It’s a super-great project they’re working on. It’s so important. This is an aging population and we need to be forward thinking and include everyone.”

Chelsie, now 32, works in brand marketing for STCU, Spokane Teachers Credit Union, in Eastern and Central Washington and Northern Idaho.

Her brother Will is involved in the family business, Accessible Walla Walla Tours. It offers custom tours and transportation and shuttle rides in a Ford Transit 3500 van that carries one power wheelchair or two manual wheelchairs or scooters and up to seven other guests.

Around the Haddens’ wedding anniversary in 2020, Betsy wrote on Facebook that “A great relationship is about two things. First, appreciating the similarities, and second, respecting the differences."

This outlook stood them in good stead during their three decades together.

Nels and Betsy Hadden on a boat ride. 

They met and dated for just two or three weeks when as a submariner he shipped out with the U.S. Navy.

“He was back in port only a week when he proposed and we were married 2½ months later. He shipped out again shortly after the wedding (in 1989). It was all a whirlwind.”

She said both their families loved the outdoors and had strong family values.

“Perhaps that is what brought us together. Our love was, and still is, strong. Let me tell you, there have been some night and day issues, but for 31 years we have never torn each other down for our difference of opinion. This is how we will last another 31 years, because we love with mutual respect.”

They met when she worked for the U.S. Forest Service and he was stationed in Quilcene, Washington. He was very proud of his 9½ years of service.

Nels Hadden was born June 1, 1962, in Pendleton to William and Doris Asher Hayden. He grew up in Pilot Rock, Oregon, with siblings Craig Hadden of Shoshone, Idaho, Randi Goold of Puyallup, Washington, Guy Hadden of Enterprise, Oregon, and Aaron Hadden of Pilot Rock. He graduated in 1980 from Pilot Rock High School.

Nels Hadden’s naval service included duty aboard the USS Nevada, the Navy’s eighth Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. He was also a plankowner on the USS Alabama, the Navy’s sixth Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. He left the Navy when the military downsized in 1993 at the end of the Cold War.

The Haddens moved to Centralia, Washington, and bought a house in Napavine, Washington. He transferred with his employer, US Cellular, to The Dalles, Oregon, and then moved to Sunquist Road in the Stateline area by Milton-Freewater.

“And then he had the accident. We spent 13 months in the hospital, then needed to find a one-level wheelchair accessible house and in 2010 moved to a home in Walla Walla,” Betsy Hadden said.

“Nels believed in Accessible Walla Walla when I wanted to give up on it in January.

“He said, ‘no we have to stick to it, I really believe it’s what we’re supposed to be doing.’ He wanted to give people the opportunity to go on a wine or cultural tour,” she said.

Accessible Walla Walla, which she’s turning into a nonprofit, has been featured in a couple of national magazines.

“When Nels got out of the hospital he had three things he really wanted to do. Go get really good Mexican food, see our daughter in college and go to the beach.”

They were frustrated at the Mexican restaurant when they couldn’t get inside with the wheelchair, which was baffled by a narrow vestibule and the inability to turn “and that sat in our minds for a long time.”

Going to the beach was far more successful, she said. She found a website for Lincoln City, Oregon, that was “one-stop shopping. You could find everything you needed, restaurants, activities and hotels in great detail. That really stuck in my mind.”

Betsy Hadden had worked at the Chamber of Commerce for more than two years, then started Fresh Marketing & Events, “which took off.”

But although it tanked with the advent of COVID-19 in early 2020, the window of opportunity opened to found and work on Accessible Walla Walla.

“We just really, really believe that people should have access, including the newly injured who struggle with those issues.

“My goal is to make Walla Walla very accessible. It’s a lot of work, more than I planned on, but I will keep it up and finish it for Nelsy.”

Other gifts that have come from Nels include being able to share equipment that benefited him in life.

In 2017 Nels received a four-wheel-drive all-terrain wheelchair from the Independence Fund. The jazzed up vehicle has lights and turn signals and is controlled with a sipper-puffer device.

While he was in Craig Hospital, Betsy bought him the shooting system with a grant that could attach a rifle, shotgun or crossbow to the chair.

At the time, he told the East Oregonian that the new chair had significant meaning for his freedom of movement.

“You rely on it every day because without it you’re in bed. It’s basically like an arm or a leg,” he said.

In February Betsy posted on Facebook that “Nelsy loved to be able to hunt again. … Over the past few years, he could not hunt because he was in so much pain. I gifted his four-wheel drive wheelchair and hunting and fishing system to a local vet in Walla Walla, who became a quad just before the pandemic started.

“It is what Nelsy would have wanted. To give someone the same opportunity he was blessed with.”

Betsy gave Nels’ bed and a portable electric lift to a young wheelchair-bound child in town.

“They are a big gift and make life a lot easier. I wanted them to go to someone who can really use them,” she said.

Despite the pain, despite the illnesses, “He changed a lot of people’s lives and was changing the way for those needing accessibility. He was always happy, he never complained — very, very rarely — complained. He was dealt a crappy hand but always had a smile.”

Annie Charnley Eveland is a freelance writer who produces the Etcetera column and feature stories for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. She retired from the U-B after a 42.5-year newspaper career as an editor, columnist and journalist.  Send news with contact name and daytime phone number to acereporter1979@gmail.com or call 509-386-7369. 

A celebration is being planned to honor Nels’ life. Wife Betsy Hadden said it’s being called Nelsy’s Live-Big Love-Hard Party.

It will be at 3 p.m. March 5, at Foundry Vineyard, 1111 Abadie St. Arrangements are through Herring-Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W. Alder St., Walla Walla.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Accessible Walla Walla through Downtown Walla Walla Foundation. See accessiblewallawalla.com.

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