by Sarah Price
It must have been her imagination, she reckoned.
Yet she continued to watch it. Mayhaps because it was an inviting light, a glow that suddenly seemed to blaze. It filled her with a warmth that spread throughout her chest. God’s light, she thought. In that instant, she understood it all and knew what the past twelve hours had all truly meant.
For the first time in a long time, she felt at peace.
You understand now?
The voice was inside of her head but she wasn’t afraid anymore. It was Stephen and Jacob and Rachel Ann all wrapped into one tone. It was the past, the present, and the future staring at her and telling her something very important, something that only she could act upon in order to change the final years of her life.
She nodded her head, although no one was around to see her. Yes, she thought. I understand it all.
Chapter Six
Elsie wasn’t surprised when she heard the buggy pull into her driveway at precisely seven in the morning. In fact, she was prepared. She had dressed in a clean blue dress with long sleeves and a freshly ironed black apron, waiting. If she was asked how she knew that Menno would show up, she wouldn’t have been able to answer the question. But she had known to expect her youngest nephew and she knew what was about to transpire.
The knock at the door was soft, as if afraid to startle her. But Elsie was on her feet and pulling at the doorknob within seconds of the noise. Flinging the door open, she greeted Menno with a warm smile and a friendly, “Merry Christmas, Menno!”
If he had been concerned that he would startle his elderly aunt, it was Menno who was surprised.
“Aendi,” he said. “You are expecting someone?”
She laughed lightly. “I believe ‘Merry Christmas’ is the proper greeting on this wunderbaar gut day!”
He frowned at her. “Are you feeling alright, then?”
“Never better,” she responded and took a step back. She gestured him inside. “It’s cold. How about some tea or coffee to warm you, Menno?”
“Well,” he started, slowly shutting the kitchen door behind himself. “That would be right nice, Aendi.” He took off his gloves and shoved them into his coat pocket before he slid the coat off and hung it on the peg by the door. “Wanted to stop by and see how you were today. Wasn’t certain if you were going anywhere for the day. If not…well, sure you won’t say yes, you never do…but…” He paused. “Sure would be nice to have you come over and spend the day with my Melinda and the kinner.”
She didn’t respond right away. Her heart was racing and she quickly thought back to the events from the previous evening and early morning. Hustling in the kitchen, she poured him a steaming cup of coffee and put the cup on a tray with a bowl of sugar and creamer of milk before she carried it to the table. As she set it before him, she smiled but said nothing.
“Did you hear me, Elsie? Melinda and I just can’t have you sitting here alone. Won’t make our day happy,” he said, reaching for the coffee cup. “I don’t want to argue with you about it but…”
“Ja,” she said softly.
“…no use being here alone,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “You need to let others take care of you from time to…” He stopped. “What did you say?”
“I said ‘ja’. I’ll come.”
Silence.
He hadn’t expected that, hadn’t thought that she would acquiesce without an argument or some sort of coercion. Her willingness stunned him into silence.
She smiled again, a soft and knowing smile. “You drink that coffee while I gather my things.”
The ride in the buggy took just twenty minutes. Elsie was thankful that Menno had the forethought to bring some blankets. The air was crisp and cold, the kind of biting cold that could hurt Elsie, should she breathe it in through her nose. Instead, she lifted the edge of the blanket to cover her face and warm the air that she breathed.
The sky was grey. It hadn’t snowed much this winter so far. Just a dusting that had remained sprinkled on the trees, especially the evergreens. Today, however, she could taste it in the air: a major snowfall was on its way. The day would soon find inches, perhaps even a foot, of snow on the ground. Of that, she was sure and certain.
She tried to think back to her own youth and snowy winter days. Snow meant sleigh riding down the hill behind the neighbors’ barn. Elsie could still remember her older brothers, including Menno’s father, John, helping her drag the sleigh up the hill when she was a young girl. It was an old sleigh with rusty runners. Her daed would use steel wool to rub the rust off and coat the runners with new paint. It didn’t help. Each year, the runners would get rusty again. But Elsie didn’t care.
The kitchen was ablaze in warm light from the kerosene lamps when Elsie walked inside. The air smelled like freshly baked bread and scrambled eggs. Melinda was at the counter, her back toward the door that Menno had just opened for his aunt.
“Back so soon, Menno?”
“Ja,” he said. “And with a surprise!”
Melinda turned around and, when her eyes set on Elsie, she gave a broad smile and hurried over to greet her aunt with a warm hug. “Oh Elsie! What a gut surprise! I didn’t think Menno would be able to convince you!” She looked back and forth from Elsie to her husband. “I’m so happy!”
“I didn’t even need to convince her,” Menno said, taking off his coat and hat. “It was as if she was expecting me!”
Melinda laughed and clapped her hands. “You were expecting him, then?” She had always been a happy woman with a warm heart. But the joy in her voice was something that Elsie hadn’t noticed before this moment. It was so sincere! Was she truly that overjoyed that Elsie was there for Christmas supper?
“I may have been,” she responded. Then, handing Menno her black cape and bonnet, she looked around the kitchen. “The kinner are still sleeping?”
“Nee, nee,” Melinda said, turning back to the counter. She had been making stuffing for a large turkey. From the looks of it, Elsie guessed it to be about twenty-five pounds. Melinda began spooning the stuffing into the cavity of the bird then, giving up, began to use her hands. “They are out milking the cows.”
“All of them?” Elsie asked as she looked around.
Melinda laughed. “Yes, all the kinner except for the baby and Priscilla. They are still sleeping.”
“Timothy?” Elsie asked, not believing what she was hearing. She couldn’t remember the last time that she had seen Timothy. But she did recall that he had been barely able to walk on crutches.
“He’s moving around right gut,” Menno reassured her. “You would hardly know of the handicap.”
“Oh, help!” Elsie said and clucked her tongue three times.
Menno laughed at Elsie’s expression and walked over to Melinda. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he peered over to watch what she was doing. “That sure is one big bird for a not so big family,” he teased.
Playfully, she nudged him with her arm. “You know that my sister and her family are coming over.”
Alarmed, Elsie started to say something, to protest that she would be too much extra trouble. Yet, as soon as that thought crossed her mind, she forced her mouth to stay shut. No more, she told herself. No more. So, instead, she took a deep breath and offered her assistance. “What can I do to help now, Melinda?”
The next hour passed quickly. Elsie helped clean the dishes from breakfast, washing and drying them before stacking them in the cabinet. She wasn’t certain if Melinda had a fancy set of dishes for special celebrations such as Christmas or Easter. Instead of asking, she decided to wait to take direction from Melinda. For once, she would let someone else take charge and tell her what to do.
“Mamm! Mamm!” a voice called out from the washroom behind the kitchen. “It’s snowing!”
Both Melinda and Elsie looked up, first glancing at the window and then toward the back door. In a flurry of activity, the young children tumbled into the room, their faces flushed pink from the outdoors and their eye
s glowing.
“Aendi!” the youngest one cried out and ran to give her a big hug. “You came! You came!”
The warmth of the little arms around her waist touched Elsie. She shut her eyes and let herself enjoy it, if for just a moment. When was the last time a little one had hugged her? At Stephen’s funeral? But this hug was so different. A hug of joy, not of sorrow. “Merry Christmas, Anna,” Elsie said. “You smell like snow!”
Anna laughed, her brown eyes sparkling. “Snow doesn’t smell, Aendi!”
“Don’t sass your aendi,” Melinda reprimanded gently. “And snow does smell. It smells fresh and cold…just like you!”
The other children began to giggle at the thought.
“Elsie! Will you show me how to crochet some bookmarks today?” It was Linda, the eight year old who asked that question. She was always begging to crochet new things. Bookmarks were the easiest to make, so Elsie was surprised that she would ask.
“Mayhaps another day,” Elsie said. “It is Christmas, after all. No crocheting on such a day when we should be enjoying each other’s company and thinking about baby Jesus.”
Linda’s smile disappeared.
Melinda tried to hide her own smile at her dochder’s reaction. “Mayhaps a little wouldn’t hurt, ja? After all, if you are doing it together, it’s gut time spent together.”
The kinner took off their coats and hung them on the pegs. Small puddles of melted snow dotted the floor. Without being asked, Linda took a rag from the bucket behind the door and wiped up the water so that no one would slip. In the meanwhile, the other kinner hurried upstairs to tidy their rooms and change out of their work clothes.
Elsie leaned against the counter and watched the energy of the young children as they dashed up the stairs. Their presence had energized the room, filling it with goodness and light that she hadn’t felt in a long time. I made the right decision, she told herself.
“Aendi!” another voice called from the doorway.
When she turned around, she caught sight of young Timothy. He was at the door, a crutch under his arm and a smile on his face. He was taller than she remembered him and, when he crossed the room, he barely limped at all. Like a proper young man, he reached out his hand to greet his aunt with a warm handshake.
“Daed said you were here! We could barely wait to finish the barn chores!” His smile lit up her heart. A beautiful boy with a face like an angel, she thought “I hope we can play Scrabble later. Haven’t played that with you in over a year, ain’t so?”
She felt a lump in her throat. It had been the week before his accident but she didn’t want to remind him of that. Melinda had brought the children over to her house to visit and Timothy had insisted that they’d play. He loved words and spelling them out on the Scrabble board. She had tried to play fairly but had won, nonetheless. It wasn’t hard since he had been only seven at the time. But he wanted to show off his knowledge of spelling with his great-aunt.
“I’m much better now,” he said proudly.
“Timothy,” his mamm warned. “A haughty spirit goeth before a fall, ja?”
He lowered his eyes. “Sorry, Mamm,” he said but peeked at Elsie. “But it’s true,” he whispered so that his mamm couldn’t hear.
For the rest of the morning, the kitchen was a blur of activity and voices and laughter. Once the baby woke up, there was even more noise and even some crying. But it was all happy noises, a house full of love and life. Elsie sat in the rocking chair, holding the baby and just watched, observing all that was around her. The voices from the night before echoed in her head, dissipating amidst the activity that countered the one horrible word that continued to haunt her: alone. Nee, she thought. I’m not alone now.
It was during the Christmas supper that Elsie finally took a deep breath and looked up from her seat. She surveyed the faces of the adults and kinner that surrounded her. Melinda’s sister and husband were chatting with Menno and Melinda about a neighbor while the children were helping themselves to a second round of mashed potatoes, coleslaw, and turkey.
Clearing her throat, Elsie caught Menno’s attention. “I have an announcement,” she said softly. “I want you all to hear it.”
The room became silent as all eyes fell on the normally quiet Elsie. She took her time, looking at each and every one of them. Their eyes were bright and curious but also full of love.
“I have decided that I am going to move into your daed’s old house,” she said firmly, not wasting any time to get to the point. “I will live alone no more. I want to be around my family and share in your life.”
Melinda gasped. “Oh Elsie!”
Menno frowned for a second then, as the words sunk in, he gave a broad smile. “That is right gut, Elsie! Right gut, indeed!”
The children clamored, the smaller ones bouncing in their seats although they weren’t exactly certain what the announcement meant. Young Timothy reached out his hand and touched Elsie’s arm. When she looked at him, he grinned. “We can play Scrabble all the time, then!”
“I hope you learned more words since we last played,” Elsie teased lightly.
Menno nodded his head. “I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas gift, Elsie. That grossdaadihaus has been empty for far too long. It will be gut for Melinda and for the kinner to have you stay here with us,” he said. “And gut for you, too.”
“Ja,” she acquiesced. “Right gut for me, indeed! I don’t want to be alone anymore.” For a moment, she thought back to the voices that had taunted her last night. She didn’t want that awful vision of the future to come to fruition.
Menno clapped his hands. “I think this calls for a family celebration!” He glanced around the room and smiled at the kinner. “Shall you kinner all sing a carol together to celebrate?”
Linda and Anna were the first to stand. The rest of the kinner followed their example and, within a short minute, they stood before the adults, smallest children up in front and the older ones in the back.
There’s a gladness all around
Christmas joy,
There’s a gladness all around
Christmas joy.
Smiles can easily be found
Mirth and happiness abound,
Christmas joy, Christmas joy
Christmas joy, joy, joy.
When the song was finished, Elsie smiled and wiped at the corner of her eyes. Indeed, she thought, there was joy in her heart today, a joy that would transcend Christmas. They continued to sing, moving onto the Angel’s Song. Even Elsie had to join the chorus as the spirit lifted her spirit to share in the beauty of singing praise to the Lord and His son, Jesus:
Unto you is born this day
Jesus to be King o’er all
Ye shall find Him on the hay
In a manger of a stall.
In Heaven glory,
In Heaven glory,
In Heaven glory,
And peace, good will on earth.
She felt the blessing of God bestowed upon her as she looked at the shining faces before her.
And, at this instant, Elsie realized that she had been given the greatest Christmas gift of all: The Gift of Love. A gift that all came about because of the visions of her past, present and future. From this moment onward, she would never feel lonely again.
Amish Carols
After having spent so many years among the Amish, it came as a complete surprise to me to learn that the Amish participate in singing Christmas carols. It was also a humbling experience because it taught me a valuable lesson: no matter how much you think you know about a culture and community, there are always surprises.
I was delighted to learn that the Amish children spend their “Christmas” days visiting the elderly, infirmed, and widowed to sing Christmas carols. I was also delighted to learn that they also present concerts at the school for the members of their community that wish to come visit and hear them sing Christmas carols.
I heard from my friends that the carols are sung in English, not Pennsy
lvania Dutch or German. I’m not certain if that is for all communities or just the one in which I have been accepted. One of the parents will hook up two mules (or horses) to a wagon filled with hay bales to drive the children from home to home. This usually happens during the week preceding Christmas in the afternoon when the children would normally be in school.
When I first heard this story, I was overcome with emotion. I stay with an elderly woman who has, basically, no siblings or immediate family left to tend to her needs. She takes care of herself. She has asked me, on more than one occasion, “Who will take care of me?” While I wish I could shout “Me! Me!”, I know that is not the answer that she is seeking.
The answer, indeed, is God.
God will take care of her. Perhaps she forgets from time to time but that is the truth that keeps her going. I remind her of the love that God has for her every time that I see her. More importantly, I see the love that the community has for this lovely woman. Her own nephew and neighbors tend to her needs on a daily basis, even when she doesn’t need them.
My heartfelt wish for the rest of the world is to feel the love and the sense of community that is expressed in the world of the Amish. Many of you may never experience the world of the Amish firsthand but I am so blessed, and thankful, that I have been chosen to have the capability to share them with you. I often feel that we are missing something by not being Amish. So, to have the gift and passion to share it with my wonderful readers means more to me than you can imagine. I just want you to experience, even for a moment, the wonderful world that is known as the Amish.
The Amish Christian Class Series will continue. I hope you love reading them as much as I truly enjoy writing them.
Enjoy the stories. Enjoy the carols.
Christmas Joy
There’s a gladness all around
