How to Rise from Life’s Wreckage and Reclaim Your Hope – Episode 363

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Episode Summary:

Have you ever wondered how you would respond if life completely unraveled in an instant? My guest today, Sheryl Ramstad, knows that reality all too well. After surviving a catastrophic plane crash with less than a 1% chance of survival, she could have easily given in to despair. Instead, she chose to rise—reclaiming her life, reinventing her future, and redefining what it means to live with purpose. From the ashes of tragedy, Sheryl’s story shines as a powerful testimony of resilience, grit, and the sustaining grace of God.

Most of us will never experience the devastation of a plane crash, but all of us face moments when life feels shattered beyond repair. Today on Your Hope-Filled Perspective, I’m joined by Sheryl Ramstad—a woman who not only survived the unthinkable but has gone on to thrive. With perseverance, faith, and courage, she rebuilt her life, pursued new careers, climbed one of the world’s highest mountains, and continues to inspire others to press forward no matter the odds. Her journey is a living reminder that hope can rise from despair and that our greatest challenges can become the very places God’s strength shines brightest.

Quotables from the episode:

  • I was at the time a federal prosecutor and really steep in my professional career as a trial lawyer. While at the same time in my spare time I was taking flying lessons to earn my private pilot’s license, my husband had been a pilot since he was 16. We envisioned a life together where we would have our own plane, take it on trips. He is the pilot and I as a co -pilot.
  • Well, the 4th of July weekend in 1979, we’d been at the lake with my folks, came back that Saturday on the 7th of July, 1979, so I could have my first solo flight as a student pilot, which is the rite of passage for a first -time student pilot. We got back and I was prepared. I had studied the manuals. I’d gone through the checklist. I discussed in detail with my instructor that the flight pattern would be a rectangular one. I’d go up and go in that rectangular pattern. Each time I’d come back to the airport and be given clearance to land, I’d touch down with the wheels And then I’d take off right away again and take off a second time. On the third time of my touch and goes, I’d taxi into the airport and then I would have satisfied the requirements of my first solo flight as a student pilot.
  • Everything went flawlessly over the first, during the first two touch and goes. I was flying over downtown St. Paul, the Mississippi River I for and the state Capitol building.
  • It was a busy weekend because it was the 4th of July and but I was confident ready and prepared until the engine quit on my third touch and go after I’d been cleared for landing. I was as I mentioned in a position where there were boats below with people on them. There were cars on the freeway. It was packed. It was a parking lot. The state capitol was in a movable building. There was I looked for a clearing. But there was no place to put the plane down. The plane dropped very quickly. I had about 20 seconds. Quite frankly, I didn’t think I’d live but I didn’t want anyone to die with me.
  • On the way down, the plane caught a power line, which ripped off the wing and sprayed the cockpit, causing the gas tank to explode and the cockpit to ignite in flames. It then came to an abrupt stop 10 feet from a woman sunbathing in her backyard. When I felt the jolt and realized that I was in this burning inferno and had to get out, I tried to unlatch the doors, but they had jammed from the impact. I tried to get through the door that was on fire, throwing my all my body weight against it Twice and the third time miraculously it popped open and I was able to climb out through the flames and get to the ground.
  • A man approached me who lived in the neighborhood and asked me if there were others in the plane. And I said no, it was my first solo and I said, “why did the engine quit?” And he said, “I don’t know the answer to that question,” but he said, “I do know one thing.” He said, “you did a darn good job of putting that crippled plane down without killing yourself and others in the neighborhood.” He then helped me get across the street to a sidewalk in front of the Catholic Church, St. Vincent’s Catholic Church, where I collapsed. A priest came out of the church and gave me last rites before the rescue workers came and took me to a burn center where I spent the rest of that summer recovering from burns. I was burned over with second and third degree burns over 37 % of my body.
  • I had been thinking that the hospital would be the end of my journey, but it wasn’t. It was only the beginning. It was a years -long journey, seven major surgeries. As you mentioned, I was given a 1 % chance of surviving.
  • The next thing I remembered after I got to the hospital was waking up in the burn unit in a hospital bed and looking over and seeing my mother with the Bible in her lap. She had flown down to be there with me. And she said, “Sheryl, you’re a strong person, with God’s help, we’ll get through this.” And both she and I knew that although others thought it was my first solo, the Lord was my co-pilot.
  • I can only imagine doctors walking in and saying, you have less than a 1 % chance of survival. So, what role did faith and determination play in you beating those odds? It was everything, Michelle. My faith was what carried me through. When I was in the hospital, I got a letter from then -Governor Al Quie, and it said, “I join your other friends and wishing you a recovery. The Lord must have more important things, must have more for you to do.” And that really stuck in my mind. And from that point on, I tried to follow what I felt the Lord was leading me to do. And to this very day, I’ve done some things that other people have questioned. They’ve wondered why I left the bench. I was a judge, I was appointed a judge at age 32, three years after my crash by Governor Quie. And I was on the bench for four years before I left the bench. And I think for every governor, a judge is their legacy. So, I was concerned that I not disappoint Governor Quie, but I felt led to leave the bench. And years later, when I was commissioner of corrections and was able to start the first faith-based unit with Governor Quie. I looked down at a prison fellowship luncheon where he was sitting. I was speaking and I said, you know, Governor Quie, neither of us had any idea what the Lord had in mind for me when he called me to leave that bench. And I think I hope you understand now why I had to do what I did. So that was just one example of following the Lord’s lead and doing things that other people questioned.
  • Similarly, when I was later in a position to run the prisons in Minnesota. And quite frankly, when the governor, then Jesse Ventura appointed me commissioner of corrections, I didn’t know why I’d been selected for that. inside. And here I was coming from the outside. But again, I felt led to take the position. Well, I knew at the time I took it that there was a faith -based prison in Texas that George Bush had started. It was called Sugarland, and it was the Carol Vance unit. So, I set out to do research to see if it would be appropriate for Minnesota. And again, I approached Governor Quie, and I asked him if he would serve as chair of a faith-based advisory committee to look into the feasibility of having a similar unit in Minnesota. Well, he said to me, he was very dubious that it would ever happen with Jesse Ventura as their governor, because The governor had been on, Jesse Ventura had been on record as saying religion was for the weak -minded, but both Governor Quie and I decided to place it in God’s hands and to go forward and do the best we could and we left the rest to him.
  • We were very impressed by the people who said that God cracked their hearts open and changed them from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. So, when we came back, we still had this question of whether we’d be able to get the governor’s approval to go ahead with a faith -based unit in Minnesota because it had never been tried before. It was relatively new. There were only three units like it in the country. But again, we went forward, and We got the unions to come on board which unions are opposed to any sort of change and they were very concerned about that but with meetings and discussion we were able to get at least their acquiescence in the idea that they’d give it a try.
  • And we had the evidence to show that a faith -based prison could change lives and lead to reduced recidivism. So, I plotted to figure out how I could do that because he always had his handlers around him. But we had a prison opening coming up in Rush City, Minnesota. We were taking a small plane to the prison opening, or at least I suggested that we take a small plane to the prison opening with just enough seats for my deputy commissioner, the pilot, the governor, and myself. And I invited the governor to go with us on that flight to Rush City so that I could have one-on-one conversation with him. The Lord was with us on that flight. And by the time we got to Rush City, he said, “Sheryl, you’ve done your due diligence.” He said, as long as it works, and nobody’s forced into it, it’s voluntary, you can go ahead and try it. So that was the last obstacle to launching our faith -based prison, and that was 24 years ago, and it’s still in existence today. It’s been amazing.
  • But time and again, I hear from those inmates coming before us that they’ve gone through prison fellowships program at prison, and it really changed their lives. And they speak earnestly. They have mentors, they are prepared to go out into the community, participate in the church with the mentor at their side. And so, it’s been really gratifying. It’s been 24 years and it’s still going strong and changing lives.
  • In the days and months following that crash, what was the most difficult obstacle you faced? Was it physical, emotional, or spiritual? Spiritual certainly was not an obstacle, but it was a real avenue for hope. My family would gather around me before each of my seven surgeries, and we’d all say the Lord’s Prayer together. And that was a reassurance that I wasn’t going into that operating room alone, but that my fate was in the Lord’s hands. My mother would pray constantly. I would have the Bible out and look for hope. I had friends like Governor Cui who stood by me.
  • I didn’t realize when they told us that I would be in the woods for two weeks that it meant I was on the life and death border, and they didn’t know which way it would fall. But again, I knew that the Lord was with us and I felt that things would work out. I had this abiding sense of peace. And at age 29, I had a lot left I wanted to do. I hadn’t started my family. I was in the beginning of my career. I had just been training for a marathon. I had run a 10k the week before. My accident, my parents had a photo of me running that race next to my bed stand. A nurse came in and saw it and she said, Sheryl, in two years you’ll be running a marathon and I’ll be there at the finish line to cheer you on. Well, at the time I couldn’t even stand up, Michelle, let alone think of running again, let alone think of doing something I’d never envisioned, run a marathon. But with the Lord’s help and grace, a year and 11 months later, I ran that marathon.
  • People would stop dead in their tracks and say, “What happened to you?” And, you know, it was an opportunity to say with the Lord’s help and grace, I was able to survive an airplane crash. And so, it became a source of my testimony that I wasn’t flying alone. I wasn’t flying solo, but the Lord was my co -pilot and had been leading me through not only the very difficult times, I mean, burns are unlike anything I had ever imagined.
  • When I was in the hospital, instead of asking “why me?”, I would ask “what next?” And the Lord always had an answer for me. And that became my future question that I’d always ask, what next, Lord? And I tried to follow his lead when I was later in life, when I was in my early sixties, I was sitting on the bench again, I’d gotten reappointed. And I felt called, I felt this calling to help burn survivors because I had had this experience and I wanted them to know there was life after burns.
  • I went through my master’s in nursing program. Eighteen months later, I was a nurse. and then went on and got my doctorate. So, I spent five years in nurses training and while I was in training, one of the most gratifying things was to be able to return to the very burn unit where I’d been a patient and to see how I could influence and help and pray for people who were in this shape that I had been in where it might have seemed hopeless, but give them a reason to hope.
  • There were ways in which the message to me was that the Lord was with me and that I had followed the right path in doing that. So, I would encourage others to let go and let God. It’s so much, so reassuring to know that our fate is in his hands. And there were times when I was really not sure if I’d make it or not.
  • Many people would have given up, Sheryl. What kept you moving forward instead of succumbing to despair? I’m thinking about our listeners and our viewers who are going through difficult circumstances right now. How did you hold onto your hope during that process? – Well, I knew I wasn’t in it alone. I reached out to others, in particular people who I knew had faith, and would ask them, “What’s next?” They wouldn’t have the answers, but then I’d ask the Lord, and I’d see a path that made no sense to me at the time, but that I felt called to follow. And I can’t explain that calling, Michelle other than to say it was a still small voice inside of me.
  • I would give others the advice that it’s when it’s bigger than you when your recovery is bigger than you When your life is out of control, when you feel like you just don’t have a place to turn, turn your attention to the Lord and read your Bible and ask for the Lord’s help. Ask Him to walk beside you, surround yourself with people who are faithful, who can help you in those times of doubt, who can lift you up and encourage you. And that’s what got me through.
  • “Sheryl, I’m curious, what did you discover about yourself that you didn’t know before the plane crash?” – Before the plane crash, I was ambitious. I was all about my career. I’d become the head of a number of organizations, the young lawyers section, women lawyers, and my career was really on the rise. All of a sudden, none of that made any difference. It didn’t matter. But what mattered wasn’t why me, but what next? What was the Lord’s plan for me next? It wasn’t about bouncing back, it was about forging forward, turning survival into service.
  • Sheryl, my listeners know that I’ve written a book “Sacred Scars,” resting in God’s promise that your past is not wasted, and your story begs the question, “Because you have lived with both the physical scars from the burns as well as emotional scars, how have you embraced your scars as part of your story rather than as setbacks?” I’ve, it’s turned my life into one of purpose, Michelle. It’s given me direction, I focused on service over survival, tried to encourage others, and that’s been my goal.
  • I think it’s our natural tendency as humans when we encounter unimaginable circumstances to wonder, “Why me?” Job asked, “Why?” But the interesting thing is God never answered that question. But approaching those situations and asking the Lord what next takes our focus off of ourselves and puts it back onto the one who can make all the difference. It takes our focus off the problem and puts it back on the problem solver. So, if you feel like you’re going through an impossible situation right now. I just want you to take a clue from Sheryl’s story, time and a time and time again throughout her life. She’s been in situations when she could have asked, why me? But by focusing her attention and getting her hope from the God of all hope, she made it through and so can you.

Scripture References:

  • Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”
  • Luke 18:27 “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.”

 

Recommended Resources: (If there are affiliate links in this post, meaning, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you)).

 

What do you do when life feels shattered beyond repair, and the path forward isn’t clear? Join us and hear how hope can rise even in the hardest moments. Share on X Sometimes life doesn’t just take an unexpected turn, it completely unravels. Join us and hear how one woman chose faith and purpose in the middle of it all. Share on X

 

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Connect with Sheryl Ramstad:

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For more hope, stay connected with Dr. Bengtson at:

Order Book Sacred Scars / Order book The Hem of His Garment / Order book Today is Going to be a Good Day / Order Book Breaking Anxiety’s Grip / Order Book Hope Prevails  / Order Book Hope Prevails Bible Study /  Website  /  Blog  /  Facebook / Twitter (@DrMBengtson)  /  LinkedIn  /  Instagram / Pinterest / YouTube / Podcast on Apple

 

About Sheryl Ramstad:

Sheryl Ramstad, authorSheryl Ramstad is a burn survivor, former criminal trial attorney, and Minnesota Commissioner of Corrections who rebuilt her life after a devastating plane crash. Now a nurse practitioner with a doctorate in nursing, she brings a unique perspective to conversations about trauma,
reinvention, and public service leadership. Above all, she treasures her role as a mother to three adult children, and grandmother to several littles. She resides in Minneapolis with her husband, Lee.

 

 

 

Hosted By: Dr. Michelle Bengtson
Audio Technical Support: Ashton Bengtson

 

Have you ever wondered how you would respond if life unraveled in an instant? After surviving a catastrophic plane crash, Sheryl Ramstad shares how faith, perseverance, and God’s grace helped her rebuild her life and find purpose after tragedy.

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