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Authors: Hannah Schrock
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glances with her. She knew he was just as worried about Sarah as she was. They were all pleased to see Sarah on the mend. Ruth was actually dancing with joy.
Daed watched his daughters with tenderness. These women of his world that owned a piece of his heart each were strong and left him in awe. There was Emma, his middle child, a girl of such wisdom. Her journey from doubts about the church and her inclusion in the faith, to her hardships with Eli’s illness and then demise, she had finally found happiness in a gut man. Now if only Gott would give them kinder of their own.
Sarah, his eldest, whose cry in the world had wrenched his heart open, humbling him to the amount of love he could feel for another person, leaving him in fear of its loss. She had been the perfect child, courted in her rumspringa by Jeramiah who was tall, handsome and strong. Married by twenty-one and gracing them with grosskinner by twenty-three. She had been a shining example for girls in the community and now look at her, fighting the rejection and desertion of her husband, dealing with his demise and now holding up the life of her unborn child at the risk of her own.
And Martha. High spirited, fickle Martha, who had given him the most worry. Running away at fifteen, getting engaged to an Englischer and staying away for years. Then she had come back like the prodigal son and taken up her place in the community as if she had never gone. But the community still remembered and it seldom forgave. Her chance at happiness was strangled by her own past.
Daed wished there was something he could do for his three daughters, to make their lives as perfect as they could be, but hardship was Gott’s way to test man, and without testing faith how would Gott know who deserved Heaven and who hell?
Martha brought the big package she had stowed in the buggy when they had left home this morning. She placed it on the polished table piquing everyone’s curiosity.
“I finished my quilt,” Martha said. She opened the box and pulled out a quilt of midnight blue and unfolded it.
The mosaic was done in intricate thread, the stitches small and delicate. There was a bent well-thumbed Bible like Daed’s in one corner and a wooden rosary like Mamm’s in another. A barn with an embroidered E on the side was very much like Eli’s barn and a shiny red truck like the one Jarron had owned by its side.
Emma’s nurturing famous hot chocolate was in one corner and Martha’s purple-pink hair under a lace kapp were in another. In the center of the colorful quilt was a cradle with a large S carved into it, two bent figures of children around the cradle and two doves sewed on top of the children.
Daed watched the perfect tribute to their family, done by his youngest daughter and marveled at how far she had come. It was a touching gesture that was received with an open heart by the entire family. He wished that things had been better for Martha and Jacob but as things stood they were not.
His faith taught him the price for the sin of pride but in that moment he indulged in pride. Fierce, burning pride in his daughters and the families they had made.
*
Lightning cracked like a whip in the torrential dark sky. Rain poured down like bullets against the glass windows. The wind howled, rattling the shutters as it sped past the house. Sarah lay in her cot, her eyes wide open, feeling the pulsing kick of her boppli . Isaac and Ruth were asleep in the room next to Emma and Jarron.
Lightning streaked across the sky and the kitchen was bathed in white light. Sarah’s belly quivered as another wave of pain hit her. The boppli was coming but Sarah could not move her legs, could not call out for help. She was terrified. She knew the coming of her boppli meant the end for her and though she had felt she could not live anymore, the evening dinner with her family had proven her wrong.
She wanted to see Isaac grow into a young man, to take over Daed’s barn and start a family of
Daed watched his daughters with tenderness. These women of his world that owned a piece of his heart each were strong and left him in awe. There was Emma, his middle child, a girl of such wisdom. Her journey from doubts about the church and her inclusion in the faith, to her hardships with Eli’s illness and then demise, she had finally found happiness in a gut man. Now if only Gott would give them kinder of their own.
Sarah, his eldest, whose cry in the world had wrenched his heart open, humbling him to the amount of love he could feel for another person, leaving him in fear of its loss. She had been the perfect child, courted in her rumspringa by Jeramiah who was tall, handsome and strong. Married by twenty-one and gracing them with grosskinner by twenty-three. She had been a shining example for girls in the community and now look at her, fighting the rejection and desertion of her husband, dealing with his demise and now holding up the life of her unborn child at the risk of her own.
And Martha. High spirited, fickle Martha, who had given him the most worry. Running away at fifteen, getting engaged to an Englischer and staying away for years. Then she had come back like the prodigal son and taken up her place in the community as if she had never gone. But the community still remembered and it seldom forgave. Her chance at happiness was strangled by her own past.
Daed wished there was something he could do for his three daughters, to make their lives as perfect as they could be, but hardship was Gott’s way to test man, and without testing faith how would Gott know who deserved Heaven and who hell?
Martha brought the big package she had stowed in the buggy when they had left home this morning. She placed it on the polished table piquing everyone’s curiosity.
“I finished my quilt,” Martha said. She opened the box and pulled out a quilt of midnight blue and unfolded it.
The mosaic was done in intricate thread, the stitches small and delicate. There was a bent well-thumbed Bible like Daed’s in one corner and a wooden rosary like Mamm’s in another. A barn with an embroidered E on the side was very much like Eli’s barn and a shiny red truck like the one Jarron had owned by its side.
Emma’s nurturing famous hot chocolate was in one corner and Martha’s purple-pink hair under a lace kapp were in another. In the center of the colorful quilt was a cradle with a large S carved into it, two bent figures of children around the cradle and two doves sewed on top of the children.
Daed watched the perfect tribute to their family, done by his youngest daughter and marveled at how far she had come. It was a touching gesture that was received with an open heart by the entire family. He wished that things had been better for Martha and Jacob but as things stood they were not.
His faith taught him the price for the sin of pride but in that moment he indulged in pride. Fierce, burning pride in his daughters and the families they had made.
*
Lightning cracked like a whip in the torrential dark sky. Rain poured down like bullets against the glass windows. The wind howled, rattling the shutters as it sped past the house. Sarah lay in her cot, her eyes wide open, feeling the pulsing kick of her boppli . Isaac and Ruth were asleep in the room next to Emma and Jarron.
Lightning streaked across the sky and the kitchen was bathed in white light. Sarah’s belly quivered as another wave of pain hit her. The boppli was coming but Sarah could not move her legs, could not call out for help. She was terrified. She knew the coming of her boppli meant the end for her and though she had felt she could not live anymore, the evening dinner with her family had proven her wrong.
She wanted to see Isaac grow into a young man, to take over Daed’s barn and start a family of
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