by Sarah Price
“So which pattern will you do then?” Anna asked as she fingered the material. “You sure picked out beautiful colors.”
And they had. Emma loved the color blue and had picked different variations and patterns in that color. Against a white backdrop, the quilt would be lovely on any bed. “For the center panel,” she responded, her fingers brushing against one bolt of the fabric. “Something simple like the shoofly pattern, I reckon. But I’m thinking to leave a wider border and do some more detailed quilting patterns there.”
“Why, that will be quite lovely!” Anna exclaimed.
“And we’ll be donating it to the Mennonite Central Committee to raise money for the poor,” Emma added with a smile. Her face lit up at the mention of helping others. She had first started donating her work when she was fourteen. Her older sister, Irene, had helped with her first quilt, a simple twin-size quilt in greens and brown cloth. While not a very intricate piecing design, the quilting itself had been labored over during the late summer and early autumn months. When she had finally finished it, everyone had been surprised at her proclamation that she was donating it, rather than putting it into her own hope chest.
Over the years Anna had helped Emma with the piecing and quilting for at least five quilts. It saddened both of their hearts that, because of her marriage, she would not be able to work on this new quilt with Emma. In times past they enjoyed many a quiet afternoon seated in front of the old wooden quilting frame set up in the living room of the Weaver household. There was something about quilting that created a bond between women.
“And Hannah,” Anna began, shifting her attention from Emma to the younger woman. “Have you made many quilts then?”
“Nee.” Hannah shook her head in response. “This will be my first.”
“Your first quilt?” The question came out more as an expression of disbelief. Anna looked from Hannah to Emma then back to Hannah. Emma didn’t need for Anna to say what was on her mind. It was almost impossible to believe that any Amish woman had never made a quilt. “Ja vell, then,” Anna stammered, searching for the right words. “It’s right gut that Emma shows you how, I reckon. She has a lovely stitch.”
“It’s no finer than yours, I reckon,” Emma countered demurely, but her eyes glowed at the compliment. “After all, it was you who taught me.”
For the next hour the three women sketched out on paper the pattern for the quilt, deciding the order of the different fabric for each of the individual squares used to make up the quilt. Most of the discussion was between Emma and Anna, Hannah being a mere observer who watched the conversation as if she were at a volleyball game. Her eyes traveled from Emma to Anna and back to Emma again as the two women laid out their plan on paper, obvious experts in a field that Hannah knew nothing about and to which she could contribute nothing more than her enthusiasm for learning.
It was close to eleven when they heard the sound of men’s footsteps on the porch. Emma lifted her head from the paper where she had been sketching the final design and glanced at Anna, an unspoken question lingering in the air. It didn’t need to be answered as Samuel appeared in the doorway with a familiar face by his side.
“Why, Gideon King!” Emma exclaimed. “Whatever brings you here?”
He laughed at her reaction. “Helping Samuel with some new equipment he bought at the auction. You shouldn’t sound so surprised, Emma. I do have other friends beside your daed.”
She made a face at his teasing statement but did not respond. She was too used to Gideon being a fixture at their own house, a regular companion to her daed, welcomed even more now that Anna had married and moved to her own house with her new husband.
“Equipment?” Anna smiled and glanced over Gideon’s shoulder at her husband. “Did you purchase something then?”
“Ja, ja, I did.” He set his straw hat on the counter and ran his fingers through his graying hair. The age difference between Samuel and Anna disappeared whenever he set his eyes upon his young wife. The sparkle that lit up his face made it more than clear how he felt about her. “It’s only a small farmette, but we can have a right nice garden and I can set up my shop in the outer building.”
Emma raised an eyebrow and glanced at Anna. “You’ll be gardening?”
“Oh, ja! A right big garden with corn, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and peppers, as well as the usual things we planted at your home.”
The way Anna nodded her head and smiled surprised Emma, for while Anna had been the main gardener at the Weaver home for all of those years, she had never expressed such enthusiasm for the chore. Granted, the Weaver property was small, not even two full acres, and the garden had only consisted of simple things, such as herbs, tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers. For the rest of their needs they had chosen to buy their vegetables and canned goods from neighbors and friends. They had kept far too busy with quilting and visiting and tending to the care of the house and Daed, especially after he retired from his work repairing buggies.
“I never knew you to be one to garden, Anna!” Emma laughed lightly as she said it. “I may have to learn one or two more things from you yet!”
“I don’t think I taught you all of my tricks,” Anna teased back. “We are also going to raise chickens and sell eggs!”
At this announcement, Emma’s mouth dropped open and she found herself rendered speechless.
It was Gideon who laughed this time, only not at Anna’s announcement. “Well played, Anna. Anyone who can steal the words from our dear Emma has my admiration. Lord knows that I’ve been trying to do it for years.” He winked at Hannah. “And not often able to succeed, might I admit.”
“I gardened in Ohio and found it most relaxing,” Hannah declared.
Surprised, Emma turned her eyes to look upon her friend. “Did you, then? Why, you are a gardener but not a quilter! I think today is a day of surprises for me . . . from my cousin Anna and my new friend Hannah!”
Everyone laughed at Emma’s innocent remark and she too joined them, always being agreeable to laughing at herself when the situation warranted it.
The clock on the wall began to chime. Emma turned to look at it and gasped when she saw the time. “Oh, help!” She began to gather the items on the table, stacking the papers in a neat pile and placing them on top of the folded piles of cloth. “We best get going,” she said to Hannah. “Daed will need his dinner!” Everyone knew that Henry Weaver was a creature of habit as well as one of worry. If Emma was late to return, her daed would not only worry about his dochder, he would also be forced to wait for his noon meal. The combination of both would create havoc for all to experience for several days, for he’d be certain to inform everyone of the matter and the reason for it.
Still, the blame did not rest entirely on Henry’s shoulders. Emma was only too willing to ensure that her daed wanted for nothing. While her compassion for others was well known in the g’may, being one of the traits that made her the go-to person during a time of need, her coddling of her aging father was another matter entirely. Some of the g’may members thought it was wunderbaar gut that a dochder took such doting care of her daed, while others disapproved of the fact that she could have no private life of her own while tending to his. Despite having taken the kneeling vow several years prior, the bottom line was that Emma Weaver had refused to court any young man in the g’may and gave no indication that she’d ever settle down, not if it meant leaving her daed on his own.
Gideon stood on the porch, watching as the two young women hurried to the waiting buggy, eager to return to the Weaver home in order to start cutting the pieces for their quilt top. He smiled at their enthusiasm but there was something else, something wistful and distant in his gaze.
When the buggy pulled away, he turned to Anna. “I’m not quite certain about this friendship between the two girls,” he mumbled.
“Is that so? I do wonder that!” Anna sounded genuinely surprised at his statement.
Gideon shrugged. “Hannah seems quite innocent and different from ou
r Emma. Certainly not as mature. I fear Emma is placing a replacement kapp upon her new friend’s head in order to fill a void from your departure.”
Anna glanced toward the road as if she could still see the two women. But the porch was empty and the road long deserted by the buggy. “Hannah might be a breath of fresh air for Emma,” she countered. “After all, Emma has a lot she can teach her. She is wise beyond her years.”
At that, Gideon smiled. “Wise indeed. She learned from the best, I reckon.” The look in his eyes indicated that he was referring specifically to Anna’s influence on Emma.
“No better than any other woman in the g’may.” While her words spoke of modesty, the flush on her cheeks, however, said otherwise.
“Well, at least they are spending their time doing something for the good of others.” There was an approving tone in his voice, at last.
Chapter Three
THE QUILT TOP was rolled in the large wooden frame next to the living room windows. Emma preferred that location for the afternoon sun, the natural light warm and welcoming for the hours she would spend seated in her chair, her head bent over the quilting frame as she worked. Years ago her daed had found her a special chair just for her quilting: old with a cracked leather seat and resting on wheels so that she could slide down beside the frame as she quilted. When others came by to help her quilt, she always offered them her chair, but they would decline, knowing that Emma’s quick stitches were better suited for the rolling chair while they could make do with folding chairs.
For the past week she had worked diligently on the quilt. With the help of Anna, the two women managed to piece the quilt top in only two days. Both Hannah and Emma spent almost a full day working on it the previous Saturday, even beginning to quilt the pattern with Anna joining them for the early part of the afternoon. With Emma’s love of quilting, she often spent additional hours in the evening after Hannah returned home, the silence of the room broken only by the gentle hissing of the propane lantern beside the quilting frame.
The only day she did not quilt was Sunday, a day when such pleasures were forbidden by Bishop Esh. It didn’t matter to Emma. She always enjoyed a day of worship, relaxation, and visiting with friends and neighbors.
On that particular Sunday she attended the worship service with her daed at the Yoders’, who owned a nearby farm. The three-hour service, followed by an hour of fellowship, took up the first half of the day. Then, as usual, Emma invited the Widow and Maedel Blank, Paul Esh, Gideon, Gladys, and Hannah for supper. The Waglers were still busy visiting family on the weekends, something that newly married couples did for the first few months of their marriage.
It was a lively gathering, with Hetty Blank’s constant chatter and habit of repeating herself to her maem, keeping the noise level energized. And then there was Henry with his fretting over the types of food the people in the g’may were eating, worrying that nonorganic food was causing sickness. Both Gladys and Gideon seemed to listen with the utmost respect. At one point Emma thought she heard Gideon promise to help plow the garden in the back so that the Weavers could continue growing their own food next spring. And who would tend this garden? Emma wondered. Personally she did not relish the chore.
But it was the interactions between Paul and Hannah that Emma paid the most attention to. She thought herself most clever in seating Paul next to Hannah, pleased to see that the conversation between the two flowed naturally and with intimate ease. Hannah seemed to hang on to his every word, and on the few occasions that she spoke, he seemed to do the same. Inwardly Emma hugged herself in delight at the knowledge that once again she may have made a wunderbaar gut match!
In the evening Paul even offered to pick up both Hannah and Emma and take them to the Sunday evening youth singing that was to be held in the Yoders’ barn. Emma was quick to agree, knowing that Paul would certainly offer to bring them home as well. With Gladys’s home located farther away than the Weavers, Emma asked if Paul could drop her off first, claiming the onset of a sudden headache which had not been entirely untrue. However, the primary reason for the request was to enable him plenty of time to spend alone with Hannah as they rode the buggy through the dark back roads of Lititz.
The following day, Hannah came quilting. With great delight, she meted out the details of the buggy ride home and the conversations that she had shared with Paul.
“He loves to garden, Emma! Did you know that?” she asked as they sat around the quilting frame. “And he had wunderbaar advice about planting medical herbs. You know how I love to garden so!”
Emma merely smiled, replying with a nod of her head as well as the occasional “Ja” and “Oh help!” in response to the surprising stories that Hannah shared with her.
On Tuesday Anna and Hetty joined them for quilting. It wasn’t as peaceful as the previous day. As was to be expected, Hetty spent most of the time talking about her niece, Jane, who lived in Holmes County, Ohio, with her parents. They had moved there years before when land was too scarce for her daed to continue farming. Because Jane’s family was tied down to the land and animals they raised, the only time that Hetty and her maem managed to see their favorite niece was on the infrequent trips that they managed to take to Ohio. The last trip had been over three years prior, a fact that Hetty lamented quite frequently.
Usually when Emma visited Hetty and her maem, Hetty insisted upon reading the latest letter from Jane, sometimes not just once but twice. On Tuesday Hetty brought along the latest missive, one that had arrived that very morning. Emma, taking a deep breath, had said a silent prayer for God to grant her patience, and focused more on the quilting than on Hetty’s words.
So today she was quite grateful that no one was planning to visit. Anna and Hetty had their own commitments, and Hannah had asked to be excused from assisting with the quilt as she needed to help Gladys with some chores around the house.
Indeed, Emma was quite content with that arrangement. She loved nothing more than to sit there, in her special wooden chair on wheels, and reflect on Scripture while quilting. Besides, she reasoned, she could quilt ever so much faster when she wasn’t engaged in conversation anyway. The progress of the quilt was apparent; it was coming along nicely, and they were well ahead of the schedule Emma had sketched out in her diary.
So it surprised her when, shortly before noon, Hannah rushed through the kitchen door and hurried toward the living room area. Her face was beaming and she held a small envelope in her hand. The glow in her eyes clearly indicated that she came along with wonderful news. Still, it took a moment for Emma to calm her nerves from the unexpected intrusion.
“My word, Hannah!” Emma set down her thimble and needle and spun around in the chair. She lifted her hand to her chest, placing it over her heart. “You startled me! I didn’t expect you today.”
“My apologies!” Hannah’s eyes twinkled and she smiled brightly, pushing at a stray strand of her ginger red hair that had fallen free from her kapp. “I could scarce wait to tell you the news. I nearly ran the entire way here! I can hardly believe it myself.”
“Ran? Why, that’s close to a mile! Whatever could have happened? Do tell!”
Hannah giggled and thrust the envelope at her friend. “You must read it for yourself. I don’t think I am capable right now of speaking of it!”
Hesitantly Emma reached for the envelope, taking it from Hannah’s outstretched hand. She withdrew the letter and unfolded it, too aware of Hannah’s glow of happiness. Quickly her eyes scanned the neatly written words on the paper . . . not once, but twice. The shock of the words almost caused her to catch her breath, but she made certain to be extra careful to moderate her reaction. It would do no good to speak her mind on this matter.
“Can you believe it?” Hannah clasped her hands together and gave a little bounce of delight. Another giggle escaped her lips and she spun around, the skirt of her dress flaring out. “Ralph Martin wants to court me!”
“I . . . I see that,” Emma said as she neatly folded the lette
r and carefully slid it back into the envelope. An official request for courting, especially at this time of the year with the wedding season just months away, meant only one thing: an imminent proposal for marriage. Since he lived in a different church district, Ralph was clearly asking for her permission, with that on his mind. It made no sense to travel all the way to Lititz from Strasburg if Hannah had no interest in seeing him.
“What do you think?” Hannah reached for the letter, holding it in her hands as if it were the most precious item on earth. She stared at it, her eyes taking in the neat handwriting on the outside of the envelope. “It’s a fine letter, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.” Emma took a deep breath. “So fine a letter that it lends me to wonder if his schwester helped him write it. I can hardly imagine the man I met last week capable of expressing himself so well, never mind this impressive penmanship!”
Hannah giggled again and pressed the missive to her chest. “Can you imagine?”
“Nee.” Emma pursed her lips. “Nee, I really cannot.”
As if sensing that Emma did not quite share her joy, Hannah stopped and looked at her friend. “What shall I do?”
Emma frowned. “In regard to the letter?”
“Of course!” Hannah replied, her tone slightly exasperated. “Shall I write back right away then?”
“Ja, I think so,” Emma concurred.
Hannah sighed and plopped down into the recliner near the window. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the arm of the chair. “But what must I say? I’m not nearly as eloquent as you are, Emma. I do need your help, please.”
For a moment Emma pondered her words carefully. “I think it should be drafted in your own words, Hannah. Show your gratitude and flattery while expressing your own disappointment as you refuse him gently but quickly and with kindness.”
Emma’s words stopped Hannah, causing her hands to fall to her side, the letter still held in her left hand. “Refuse him?” Her mouth fell open, and the shock that she felt at Emma’s words was apparent on her expression. “You think I should refuse him?”