Greene County Trustee Dan Walker, who was seriously burned in a May 12 accident, has returned to his duties on a part-time basis.

During a Wednesday telephone interview, Walker said he returned to his office on Monday, Sept. 29, and is working until "about 1:30 p.m. or 2 p.m." daily now.

"I'm feeling good," Walker said. "I'm just trying to figure out why the Lord gave me another chance. That's what had to happen."

Walker said he has yet to get his strength "built back," but is feeling much better now.

"I'm driving and staying by myself, now," he said. "My wounds from the skin graphs have all healed."

He noted that he is "still nursing a bad knee" and using a cane.

The knee problem, he said, pre-dated the burn injuries suffered on May 12.

Walker praised the staff of the trustee's office for keeping the office in operation while he was undergoing treatment at a North Carolina burn center and recuperating at home.

"I can't say enough about these girls who took care of things while I was gone," he said of his office staff. "We're fixing to get busy with tax bills going out soon."

Walker noted that he spent 14 weeks undergoing treatment and therapy at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., then underwent 30 days of therapy at his home.

Walker had been driven back to his northern Greene County home from the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation near Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Aug. 14.

Transporting him were Greene County Mayor Alan Broyles, County Attorney Roger Woolsey, and Zack Nease, another friend.

Their van was met at the county line by Lt. Eddie Yokley of the Greene County Sheriff's Department, who gave them an escort to the Walker home.

There he was greeted and applauded by about 15 family members, co-workers and friends, including Sheriff Steve Burns.

Prior to his treatment at the Sticht Center, he had been treated in the burn unit of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center since being flown to Winston-Salem on the night of May 12 from Laughlin Memorial Hospital.

Walker, 62, had been critically burned that night as he was using an all-terrain vehicle to drag a fallen tree into a burning brush pile on his George Malone Road property.

His daughter, Beth McNeese, said in May that the ATV struck a stump, threw her father into the burning brush pile, and overturned on top of him. He was able to free himself from the fire and called his sister, Zan Walker, for help.

Zan Walker then drove to the scene, found her seriously burned brother, and rushed him to Laughlin Hospital.

He underwent skin grafts in late May.

McNeese said in May that her father had suffered third-degree burns over 37 percent of his body.