My Dearest Naomi

by Jerry

  Betsy and Larry received their report cards today. Betsy did really well, all A’s except for one B. Larry did exactly the opposite: Two D’s, and one F, the rest C’s. We were all very disappointed, the poor guy. He’s different from the rest of us, but I say that even if he isn’t so good at school, that doesn’t mean he won’t be a success in life. He takes a great interest in growing things, and I think he definitely will make a good farmer.

  The preachers are having problems with James Yoder again, and this after everyone thought the problem with his Calvinist beliefs had been resolved. I could see when the ministers came downstairs last Sunday morning that something was bothering them. Bishop Enos called a members’ meeting after church. He said they hope to settle some of these points satisfactorily with James in the next two weeks.

  Melvin’s wife told Mom that she has never pitied the ministers more. This seems to be a very hard case for everyone to handle. There are whispers going around that maybe the ministers aren’t handling things correctly, but I’ve decided for myself that I will definitely stand by the ministers. Also, I’ll try not to be hard on James or his family, and fast and pray for both.

  Earlier in the afternoon, Mom and I drove up to visit Della at the hospital. She seems to be getting along fairly well. She had some sort of opening made in her stomach, like her brother Floyd did the other year, but at least she doesn’t have cancer. The problem was a blockage caused by an ulcer, whatever that is.

  The mail service is a little twisted, I think. Today I received your card and also a letter. But nevertheless I was glad for both. I just reread them. Thanks so much for the card.

  I placed a letter in the mail today and would like to put this one out tomorrow, but I’ll wait till Wednesday, I think. That way you’ll get a longer letter.

  Wednesday morning…

  Here I am again. I want to hurry and finish this letter before the mailman goes. This is a very windy, cloudy, rainy, dreary morning, so maybe it’ll hurry up and get cold enough to snow.

  Dad, Don, and Larry went to the Worthington livestock auction last night, taking two of our cows along. Neither was worth much. Now we are down to milking eight, but still have two heifers who should deliver their calves soon.

  My mom picked up your mom yesterday morning. They went to Leann’s place for a coffee break, they said. The real reason was Mom wanted to pick up a quilt. I don’t know what your mom’s reasons for going were. Maybe she just wanted to visit.

  Tonight the young folks have a gathering at Monroe’s to clean up, since he and his wife have purchased a new place.

  We finally got the last load of hay in yesterday evening. Afterward, Rosanna, Betsy, Mom, and I were sitting in the living room resting, discussing, of all things, what names I want to give my children. Rosanna and Betsy were offering all kinds of suggestions. Suddenly Betsy said, “Wouldn’t Eugene laugh if he could hear us?”

  I’m sure you would have. But it’s good that we’re planning on having lots of children because we came up with some really nice names for them.

  Mom had a letter from one of her sisters in northern Indiana. Their boy Edward is getting worse and worse with his rumspringa behavior. He even parked his car right beside the house! Why his parents allow it, I don’t know. Rosanna said that if her child parked a car beside the house, she would smash the windshield. But I doubt if she really would, once the time came.

  Keep looking up! Remember, my thoughts and prayers are often with you. I’m so lonely without you. I love you with all my heart.

  Again, I love you,

  Naomi

  October 19

  My dearest Naomi,

  Tomorrow the bookmobile is coming, so that meant we had to get all the books in order today. Each child has to have the books at his or her desk ready to turn in. The children took out around 150 books the first time, so that’s a lot of books to keep track of. From what I can tell, everyone has the books back at school rather than lost at home somewhere. To help, I had written all the titles belonging to each child on a separate piece of paper. Last week we checked all the pages, and we went through the whole thing again today.

  Dena has been doing well with the first graders. She practices and practices with them on the blackboard, working on numbers from 1 to 1000. I’ve also worked with them some, and they are learning—slowly.

  Poor Laverne’s asthma has been acting up lately. I don’t know if it’s the weather or what. He gets to wheezing and coughing so badly. But he’s a tough little boy and won’t give up. Everyone feels sorry for him. His family takes good care of him. His older sister Velma, who’s in the seventh grade, is like a mother hen when it comes to her brother. Laverne talks to me sometimes, but not about his condition. He tries hard to live life as other people do.

  This morning Lydia brought a salamander to school. She said her dad caught it and put it into a can for her. She wouldn’t touch it. I had to get it out and put the creature in the gallon can where the foxtails are. The can is filled almost to the top with dirt, but I didn’t figure it would crawl out.

  Then Crystal came in and saw it. She said, “What if that thing gets out? If it does, I’m not coming to school tomorrow.”

  Of course, you can guess what happened. Just before recess Velma pointed down to the floor—and there it was. It ended up causing a minor panic. Everyone looked to where Velma was pointing, and almost at once several of the girls clambered to the top of their desks. The hardier girls and the boys helped me chase the creature, but it got away. There will be no more salamanders in school.

  I had a run-in with Dena today in English class. I didn’t know she could be so sure of herself. The class had active and passive verbs. When the subject does the acting it is active, if not it’s passive. After marking whether the sentence was active or passive, they were to rewrite the sentence with the opposite voice. Here is the sentence in question: “Several boys have already completed the projects.”

  Boys are completing the projects, so it is active. The rewrite could possibly be “The projects of several boys have been completed.” Dena wrote, “The projects have already been completed by several boys,” which I thought was still active.

  Dena claimed her version was passive, so now I am doubting myself. Anyway, write me what your opinion is. I would be interested.

  With all my love,

  Eugene

  October 20

  My dearest Naomi,

  I reread one of your letters from a while back, where you watched the married couples and thought how wonderful they had it being together all the time. Well, that will be wonderful, but we have to wait, I guess.

  The news about the trip to Montana I had heard before—maybe you told me. That sounds like fun though.

  The bookmobile arrived on schedule today. We had eaten lunch fifteen minutes earlier than usual so we would be ready, but it still came before we were done. I took the lower graders out first. I stayed inside the schoolhouse while the upper graders went by themselves. Four lower graders weren’t in school today, so I took their books out myself. I didn’t get new books for them though. They didn’t tell me to, and it will make less work rounding up books next time the bookmobile comes.

  Anything out of the ordinary routine makes extra work, I’m finding out. Even if one student doesn’t show up, the next day the lessons have to be explained all over again. Even though most of the grades only have two or three pupils, that still adds up.

  Larry, from third grade, has been absent for the past three days. He’s the slowest in the class, but a nice boy otherwise. My guess is he’s helping out on the farm, but that wasn’t the reason given to me.

  Because of the bookmobile we skipped arithmetic and reading today, leaving more time to spend on social studies. I also knew the students would want time to get into their new books. Only two of the first graders were in attendance, so I only had phonics class for them. I would have liked to have reading class, but I thought it would be a waste of time with only two here.
/>
  We have another decorating project going on. We’re coloring three new scenes to hang from the ceiling. Tomorrow we’ll start in earnest. On Saturday I should have time to exchange the new cutouts for what’s up there now—birds. What I’m putting up is a pumpkin with fruit lying beside it, also a cornstalk and a scarecrow. They’re supposed to be Halloween scenes, as the Mennonites do that kind of thing—at least around here.

  I’ve never gotten around to telling you how much I enjoyed the singing Sunday evening. This time a group of young people sang—seven girls and eight boys. The sound of their voices was so beautiful. I guess I love music.

  Thursday evening…

  I came home at 5:00 tonight because I had to gather the eggs. Lonnie and Luella have gone visiting at the hospital. Lonnie’s mother has lung cancer and isn’t doing well. I didn’t receive any letters from you today, so I reread two of your old ones.

  It seems I’ve been working harder to get my subjects through at school the past few days. I’m not sure why. The year I taught four grades, I used to have arithmetic and English class in the forenoon. Now I’m trying to put seven grades through in the same time period. There are, of course, fewer pupils in each grade, which helps.

  The three upper grades are getting into some difficult arithmetic work. I think that’s mainly what’s taking the extra time. They started on decimal points and are struggling to understand how percentages work.

  Then to really mess things up, I had to go and give the seventh graders the wrong instructions. While I was explaining the math lesson, I thought something was wrong but couldn’t figure out how else to do it. The book gave no instructions for the section, and I’d worked out only one problem. Instead of finding the volume of a sphere, I ended up telling them how to find the area of a circle. I called the class back up, and we got things straightened out.

  Another area I struggled with was explaining simple, complex, and compound sentences. A simple sentence has only one clause, a complex two—one dependent and one independent. A compound sentence has two clauses with both being independent. That’s how I explained it at first.

  But the students were calling simple sentences complex and complex sentences simple. The compounds were not a problem. I figured out that it’s almost impossible to tell whether a sentence has two clauses, one dependent and the other independent just by reading it. Rather, you first separate out each clause by identifying it by the subject and verb, then you see whether it can stand on its own. So now we use that approach, and things are going much better. So much for the teacher making things clear.

  I wish you were here.

  With all my love,

  Eugene

  October 21

  Dearly beloved Eugene,

  Thought: “Do nothing you don’t think Jesus would do.” I’ve been thinking on these words the last couple of days, and I think it’s a good motto. It’s also very hard to do. I know because I’ve been trying, and half the time I forget. I get mad at myself, but I think it makes me try all the harder.

  Mom is going to northern Indiana tomorrow. Harvey and his family and Eli and his family are going up for a funeral, and they asked both Mom and Dad to go along. Dad is too busy with the farmwork, so he’s staying.

  I worked for Elena Marshall today. She wants me one day a week for a while until she gets caught up. I didn’t promise anything, as I don’t know how my schedule will go. It’s kind of full already.

  Betsy was sick yesterday, throwing up I don’t know how many times. Ada came up last night to see if we have any stomach remedies for her children, so they must have it too. Today Betsy must have been some better because she walked to school. I hope it’s not something that will get passed around. I, for one, don’t want it.

  There was a young folks gathering last night, and Don and I went. They had an ice cream social and volleyball, of course. It was held at Harvey’s place for the Englisha man whom I told you about, Darrell Hooley. He has apparently spoken with Bishop Enos and is serious about joining. He’s the funniest guy I’ve been around in a long time. He had us all laughing at his stories about his work at the hospital.

  I didn’t get a letter from you today, but one came yesterday. My, you sound blue, and you sure asked some hard questions. As I read over them, I could have said “I don’t know” to both of them. I have never analyzed how or what I want in marriage, but I will try now.

  “What do I see as the most important thing that I want out of marriage?”

  For one thing, you have to realize I’m different from a lot of girls. I was very independent before I met you. And I wasn’t so sure what in the world was so great about getting married. Well, you made me change my mind drastically.

  I think, though, I’ll have to be married for a while before I really know what is the most important thing I want out of marriage. But as for what attracts me to it, the answer is really quite simple—you. To be with you, to share everything with you, and to know you even better. That’s the best answer I can give for now. Ask me again after we’ve been married a few years!

  “What do I mean when I say ‘I love you’?”

  Well, I mean just that. I love you. Remember that motto you once gave me? “Life’s a beautiful mystery…We sometimes forget that lying at the foundation of human life is a beautiful mystery—love. Many try to describe it, many say they understand it, but it belongs to those who live it. So never forget to love.”

  I agree with that. I can’t explain it except to say that my love is a deep affection for you—and even more than that, it’s a respect and a faith I have in you. And trust too. I hope that makes sense and answers your question. The truth is, I just love you, and I don’t really have the wisdom to explain it. I can only say that I’m grateful to share this beautiful mystery with you.

  Now, would you answer these same questions for me?

  And on the other topic—you said you were at a loss to know why your pupils are getting good grades. Well, you may have smart pupils, but they also have a very good teacher!

  Yours,

  Naomi

  October 23

  My dearest Eugene,

  Hello. It is late already, like 10:00 p.m., but I will write a few sentences anyway.

  I will be babysitting for Chris Van on Monday for a few hours in the forenoon. That’s a new job I picked up this week, and think I’ll really like it. They have three small children, one of whom is handicapped.

  This forenoon I husked corn with Dad, Don, and Larry on the field we didn’t use for silage. I enjoyed the work although it tired my arms. It does get me out of the house and into the open fields.

  I’m sorry to hear about Laverne’s troubles, the poor little guy. I think it’s very important for a teacher to really love his pupils because they sense it when you don’t.

  About the sentence that you and Dena disagreed on. I can kind of see her point too, but I think you are right.

  Sunday evening…

  None of us went to the hymn singing tonight, which was at Stan Miller’s house. Don didn’t want to go, and I didn’t care one way or another, so here we are. Dad stayed home today from church since he woke with an earache and couldn’t hear unless Mom faced him and talked close to his ear.

  When we arrived home from church, he could hear better again, so the morning’s rest must have done some good. The reason he’s under the weather? Yesterday he drove the wagon home from an auction north of Oden, where he purchased a new hay baler. The trip was at least twenty miles, and Dad was chilled to the bone. He could have called a driver to take him up and haul the baler home, but I imagine he wanted to save money.

  Elena Marshall came by this afternoon and talked with Mom for a long time about the marriage problems she’s having with her husband, Bob. She claims he’s verbally abusive when things get tense. I guess they are both receiving counseling from their pastor, so perhaps things will get better for them soon. I think they both need our prayers.

  Hearing about marriage problems doesn�
�t improve my feelings tonight. I felt very lonely, and now I’m a little scared. But don’t worry. I know you’re a good man and would never abuse me.

  All my love and prayers,

  Naomi

  October 24

  My dearest Naomi,

  “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Verses like this are what I fill my mind with when I get discouraged. It’s very comforting to know God is always ready to forgive.

  The other morning at the schoolhouse I was reading 1 John 1:8, where it says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” I knew that I couldn’t say that I had never sinned. I guess no one else can say it either, so that gives no one the right to think that he or she is better than anyone else.

  It’s hard for me to face someone in a direct confrontation, and this flaw of mine has shown up in my dealings with the eighth-grade girls. They are both confident of themselves and have no problem questioning my actions if it disagrees with their opinions. This is a good thing, I guess. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but if I’m right, I’m right. The difficult part is telling them so. Oh well, I will have to try.

  Last Friday night the young folks had a volleyball game at a gym they rent. It costs fifteen dollars for the evening, but when you split the amount between twenty-four people, it isn’t too bad. At least that was the plan, but when it came time to figure what each person’s share was, no one had pencil and paper. Someone suggested it should be fifty cents, and we’d call it close enough. I tried to do the math in my head and came up with sixty-two or sixty-three cents, so I told them fifty cents wouldn’t come close.

  They talked a while, and the final decision was to have everyone pay sixty cents. When I got back home and checked it on the calculator, sixty times twenty-four only gives $14.40, so someone had to make up the difference. It was a confusing mess anyway, with people throwing in bills and coins and trying to get their forty cents back. They should come up with a better system.