Seasons in Paradise

by Cameron, Barbara;

  A bright yellow butterfly fluttered over the wildflowers. It reminded Mary Elizabeth of Grossmudder, so sunny and cheerful. She‘d always been the social butterfly of the family, loving being with people. Mary Elizabeth told herself that it was selfish to want her around longer, to bounce Lavina’s boppli on her knee, and to bless her own wedding when it happened.

  Grossmudder was with God now and how wunderbaar was that?

  After the funeral service, everyone went back to the house and the mood grew lighter. God had blessed them with Miriam for the time He had and she’d enjoyed a long, happy life with her family and friends around her.

  Mary Elizabeth helped make coffee and tea and poured endless cups, served plates of food brought by attendees, and felt comforted by the kind words of many.

  Still, she was glad when the door closed on the last of them and the family drew together as one. Home would be short by one person from this day on, one person who had made this house a home before Mary Elizabeth had been born.

  Grossdaadi moved like a shadow to the dawdi haus, and her heart ached for him to face another night alone, but he gently waved away offers of another cup of coffee, some company, a bed in another room.

  “Miriam is still with me,” he said gently, touching his heart with his gnarled hand. “I’ll be allrecht.”

  As she made her way to her own room, Mary Elizabeth thought about how he and his fraa had shared many happy years but many hard times as well. They’d lost two kinner soon after they had been born, experienced serious illness, crop failures, and so much more. Yet they had shouldered those burdens together with a strong faith that had had formed the foundation of that of her dat and then his kinner. Faith that would be passed down for generations to come.

  She changed into a nightgown and readied for bed. Exhausted from the emotion of the day, she slid under the sheets and her fingers stroked the quilt that she’d sewn with instruction from her grossmudder and mudder. Sewing quilts was a legacy that had been passed down to her as well. Smiling at the thought, she drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  “I dreamed of Grossmudder last night,” Rose Anna told her the next day as they rode to the quilt class.

  “You did?”

  “Ya.” She smiled as she stared at the road ahead. “It was a nice dream. She was smiling and walking through a field of wildflowers like those you put on her grave yesterday. And Mary Elizabeth? She was walking without her cane, without pain from her arthritis.”

  She found herself smiling. “That was a wunderbaar dream. Thank you for sharing it with me.” She glanced at her schweschder. “I think you should tell Mamm and Daed.”

  “You don’t think they’ll think my dream was silly?”

  “Nee, Rose Anna.”

  “Sometimes the family acts like . . . well, like I’m silly, like I’m a little kind.”

  Mary Elizabeth frowned. “We don’t think that, Rose Anna.” But sometimes Rose Anna acted so immature . . . well, she supposed everyone had to mature at their own rate.

  Kate greeted them with a big smile and hugs when they walked into quilt class.

  “I wasn’t sure you could come,” she said. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you. We didn’t want to miss class. There’s so much to do with the new shop opening.”

  “How is your family doing?”

  “Good.”

  Kate nodded. “I was sorry to miss the funeral. I got called in for mandatory overtime.”

  Women began coming in to sew. They greeted Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna with condolences, touching Mary Elizabeth’s heart.

  A nearby table was stacked with crafts—quilts, table runners, all sorts of things. After walking around helping the women with whatever project they were working on, she and Rose Anna began packing the goods into cardboard boxes that had been stacked nearby.

  “You sure you don’t mind delivering these to the shop?” Kate asked, her forehead puckered with worry.

  “Not at all. I like seeing the progress.”

  And last time she’d visited she and Sam had made peace with each other. They wouldn’t get to talk much today since Rose Anna would be with her, but that was fine.

  Several women helped carry the boxes to the buggy when the class was over.

  “I’ve arranged for a bus to take us all to the shop on Thursday, before opening day,” Kate told them. “I think it’ll be a fun outing, and they deserve it. They’ve worked so hard.”

  She pulled Mary Elizabeth aside. “We’re not going to announce it beforehand in the press for security reasons. But I’d like you and Rose Anna to come. And Lavina, if she feels up to it.”

  “We’ll be there.”

  She took the last box and placed it in the buggy. “See you on Thursday.”

  Rose Anna climbed into the passenger seat of the buggy. “You allrecht?”

  “Ya, why?”

  “You look sad.”

  Mary Elizabeth told her what Kate had said about taking the women to the shop—but having to keep it private.

  “Imagine, some of the women still have to worry about their safety.”

  They still saw women coming in with bruises and sometimes, with children with wide, frightened eyes. It hadn’t gotten easier to see them. . . . She hadn’t gotten used to it, but it was something she’d had to expect to see and know that this place would help them to feel safe and find a way to build new lives.

  And the crafts the women made would help fund their new futures.

  They drove away with a buggy loaded with the fruits of their labors and their dreams for financial freedom. Mary Elizabeth liked helping in this effort just fine.

  * * *

  Sam wiped down the last of the new shelving just as Mary Elizabeth walked in carrying a box. He’d hoped she’d come before he left for the day.

  “Let me help you with that,” he said and hurried to take it from her.

  “Danki. Rose Anna is bringing another box in a minute. We’re kind of staggering bringing them in since someone stole a quilt from the buggy last year.”

  The man who’d done it—Carrie’s former boyfriend—was now in jail for assaulting her and couldn’t steal from them again, but Mary Elizabeth wasn’t taking any chances. Not with the hard work of the women at the shelter.

  “I’ll put this in the storeroom and help you both.”

  “Where’s Peter?”

  “Talking to Leah.”

  She headed toward the front door of the shop. “I’ll go get another box.”

  Sam felt torn. He wanted to go help get boxes from the buggy for her, but couldn’t leave the shop open. When he walked over to the entranceway to Leah’s other shop, he caught Peter’s eye. Peter nodded and strolled back.

  “What’s up?”

  “Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna are bringing in boxes.”

  Rose Anna walked in just then. She smiled. “Hello, Peter.”

  Sam’s eyebrows went up as he watched Peter move faster than he’d ever seen him move. Peter took the box from Rose Anna and chatted with her as they walked to the storeroom. Rose Anna’s eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings as she smiled up at Peter.

  He shook his head. The three Zook schweschders were so different. He’d never seen Lavina or Mary Elizabeth flirt so openly. They were more serious than Rose Anna. More mature. Well, Rose Anna was still young . . . just eighteen.

  Leah bustled into the shop, her faded blue eyes alive with excitement as they brought in the last of the boxes.

  “All ready to set up?” she asked Mary Elizabeth.

  “I schur am,” Mary Elizabeth said. “Kate said she’ll stop by after her shift to help.”

  “Gut. Then she can offer some suggestions. Sam, Peter, if you could help getting boxes out of the storeroom and set them on the tables and shelves where I’m going to display them.”

  “Just tell us where,” Peter said with a grin. “It’s great to see everything coming together.”

  “Let’s start with
the less expensive items and as we move into the back of the shop do the more complicated, more expensive items. I want to put seasonal things—for Thanksgiving and Christmas and holidays—on the big table at the rear. The crafts made by the kinner at the shelter should have a special table of their own with a sign that says that they made them. I think people will like that.”

  Sam liked that idea just fine. Leah was known for her good business sense.

  She moved about, assigning tables, watching Sam and Peter set the boxes where she wanted them. Then she asked them to hang some quilts on the walls to brighten the space and show off the patterns.

  Kate came after she finished work and brought her husband and several large pizzas to sustain the workers. Sam heard Peter’s stomach growl and watched him head for the pizza the minute the last quilt was hung.

  Leah’s grossdochders wandered over after Stitches in Time closed and worked on the window displays. No one who stopped to look in the Stitches in Time windows could resist going into the shop to look over its quilts, woven goods, and all manner of fabrics and kits to make things.

  Kate smiled at Sam and Peter when they stopped to help themselves to pizza and soft drinks. “It’s so nice to see so many helping us with this shelter project.”

  Sam knew she meant the Amish—Leah and her grossdochders, Sam and Peter after they’d completed their paid work on the shop, as well as Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna.

  “We all help each other,” he said. “The Englisch are so supportive of our mud sales and other things.”

  “Don’t you be talking to Kate about mud sales,” her husband, Malcolm, said as he came over to get some pizza. “I had to drag her away from the last one before she spent all our money.”

  “Oh, hush,” she told him, laughing as she elbowed him. “As I remember, you bought some things at the last mud sale.”

  “It was for a good cause,” he said loftily.

  “Yeah, now our garage has so much stuff stored in it we don’t have room for our cars.”

  Sam put a second slice of pizza on his paper plate and watched Mary Elizabeth approach the table with the food. He’d wondered how long it would take her to do so. She loved pizza and could eat as much of it as him.

  She lifted the lid to one of the boxes. “Oh, pepperoni! My favorite!”

  “Uh-oh, better hurry and get more if you want it,” Sam told Peter. “Pizza Monster is here.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “Not funny.”

  “I do remember the two of you fighting over the last piece that time I went for pizza,” Peter said.

  “Any plain cheese?” Rose Anna asked as she opened a box.

  “What’s the point of pizza with no pepperoni?” Mary Elizabeth asked as she raised a slice and eyed it with appreciation.

  “I agree.” Peter watched Rose Anna choose a slice of plain cheese and shook his head sadly. “Oh, well, leaves more pepperoni for us.”

  “Maybe not,” Sam told him and gestured with his slice at Mary Elizabeth. She was already on her second slice.

  He loved her expression when she realized others were staring at her. Saying she looked embarrassed was putting it mildly. “I guess I’m being selfish,” she said and started to put it back in the box.

  “Don’t be silly,” Kate said. “No one eats one slice.”

  “That’s for sure. Kate’s had three,” Malcolm told them with a grin.

  “Hey, I missed lunch, and I had to chase a bad guy down two blocks to make an arrest,” she said as she popped the top on a can of diet soda.

  “You didn’t mention that earlier.”

  “Missing lunch is no big deal.”

  “Having to chase a bad guy.”

  She shrugged. “All in a day’s work.” She jumped up. “Say, Leah, what do you think of putting the lap quilts on a separate display table?”

  Malcolm stared at the retreating back of his wife. “We’ll talk about that later,” he murmured.

  Sam wondered how he handled having a fraa who did such a dangerous job.

  “You okay?” he finally asked him quietly as he watched the other man looking so worried.

  He nodded. “I know she can take care of herself. And it’s work she loves.” He sighed. “I’d never ask her to stop working as a cop because it worries me. That would be selfish. She makes a difference.”

  “Naomi Hershberger was killed when she was working in the fields with her husband,” Mary Elizabeth said. “Remember, she was struck by a hay baler that was being pulled by their mules. And an Amish woman in Ohio was hurt when her dress was pulled into a conveyor belt.”

  “Good point,” Malcolm said. He stood and patted his stomach. “Well, I’m going to see what else I can do and leave some pizza for the rest of you.”

  “That was nice of you,” Sam told her quietly.

  She shrugged. “Sometimes people focus on the obvious—Kate’s a police officer and that’s dangerous work. But we don’t know what will happen in any one day. It’s God’s will after all. We should do what we feel led to and for Kate, that’s the job she’s doing.”

  They returned to work and as dusk was falling Leah came to thank Mary Elizabeth. “You came in your buggy, right? Then you and Rose Anna should be heading home before it’s dark. Tell Lavina we’re sorry she couldn’t come.”

  Mary Elizabeth nodded. “I will. I can’t wait until the women at the shelter see the shop tomorrow. We’ll be back then.”

  “Danki for your help.”

  “It’s been such fun.”

  She went to find Rose Anna who was standing a little closer than was proper to Peter in the storeroom. They jumped apart, and Peter’s ears reddened. Mary Elizabeth knew from having gone to schul with him that this was a sign he was embarrassed.

  “We need to go home now. See you later, Peter.”

  “Ya, well, gut-n-owed to you both.” But Mary Elizabeth saw he was looking at Rose Anna, not at her.

  “I’ll walk you out,” Sam said.

  “Danki, but that’s not necessary.”

  “Humor me.” He held open the front door to the shop and they walked outside.

  He escorted them to their buggy and then, after Mary Elizabeth drove off, followed them home to make sure they arrived safely. There were so many tourists on the road this time of the year. Some of them were curious and followed too closely or passed them in an unsafe way. When automobiles and buggies collided, few in the fragile buggies survived.

  So he followed them and fortunately Mary Elizabeth didn’t notice.

  * * *

  Mary Elizabeth sat in the bus Kate had chartered to take the women from the shelter to the new shop.

  Everyone chattered at once as they boarded the bus. The noise level and excitement rose during the short time it took to drive there.

  And then, as the bus drew closer, silence fell. Mary Elizabeth glanced over at Kate, and with a tilt of her head, Kate indicated she should look at Pearl, the woman who ran the shelter. Pearl dabbed at her eyes as the bus made the last turn to town.

  The driver parked in front of the shop and opened the door. The women filed off the bus, some of them holding the hands of their kinner tightly. They crowded around the display windows and gazed at their work.

  “Look! That’s my baby quilt!” Edna Mae exclaimed, pointing at it. “Carrie, that’s your set of mug mats!”

  Several of the women stepped aside so Carrie could see.

  Leah herself opened the front door and beamed at them. “Our special guests have arrived! Welcome!”

  The women surged inside. They swarmed the display tables and looked awed at the crafts that had been artfully arranged on them.

  There were more than a few tears shed and hugs exchanged as the women roamed around. Leah mingled, patting a shoulder here, speaking a few encouraging words there.

  The kinner loved their table and stood, hands behind their backs as if they’d been told not to touch, even though these were the things they’d made. Anna, one of Leah’s grossdo
chders, invited them to visit the refreshment table and sample cookies supplied by an Amish bakery down the street. Mary Elizabeth loved how they showed off their good manners by taking only one cookie and not spilling their little paper cups of fruit punch.

  “I don’t know who loves the shop more—the women or the children,” Pearl said as she came to stand next to Mary Elizabeth.

  Kate brought a young woman over and introduced her as a reporter for the local paper. She’d been invited to do a story on the shop and was talking to some of the women but had agreed she wouldn’t take photos of the women or their children because of security concerns.

  Pearl had trouble holding back tears as she spoke about how Kate had come to her offering to teach a quilting class to the women at the shelter.

  “She recruited other volunteers like Lavina Stoltzfus and Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna Zook,” she said, gesturing at them, then turned to smile at Leah. “And Leah here has donated a lot of fabric and supplies. Then one day Leah approached Kate and me about the women sewing crafts for a new shop Leah was thinking of opening next to her Stitches in Time shop. And now we have this.”

  She stopped and had to mop her eyes. “This is a place for the work made by women who need hope, need a place to call home. Some of them didn’t even know how to sew when they came to the shelter, but they learned and had fun being creative and grew proud of their efforts.”

  Pearl glanced around. “Life beat them down, but they were brave and came to the shelter and learned how to start looking out for themselves and their children and break the cycle of abuse.” She took a deep breath. “And now they have a place to sell their work so they can become independent and one day use what they’ve earned to get an apartment and get themselves jobs to support themselves and their children.”

  Turning to the reporter, she smiled self-deprecatingly. “I’m sorry, I’ve gone on and on. I just am so grateful to Leah and Kate and Mary Elizabeth and Rose Anna and Lavina for making this shop possible. I hope everyone in the community comes in to see what wonderful crafts are displayed here.”

  The reporter turned to Leah. “So tell me why you decided to open another shop and one that features crafts made by Englisch women.”