The Amish Mother. Rebecca Kertz

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       Chapter Two

      Zack had departed for Ohio the same day he’d arrived after making known his shocking intention of staying on the farm. After sharing their midday meal, he’d gone as quickly as he’d come with the promise to return, ready to move in with his mother and sister. Lizzie had no idea when he’d be back, but she and the children immediately went to work readying the dawdi haus the day after his departure. She would not have him feeling unwelcome.

      “Did you hang up the sheets?” she asked Mary Ruth as the girl briefly entered the bedroom where Lizzie swept the wooden floor. She and Hannah had stayed home from school to help her get ready for Zachariah’s return.

      “Ja,” her daughter said. “I did the quilts and blankets, too.”

      Lizzie smiled. “That’s goot. We want to be ready for your uncle, ja?”

      To her surprise, Mary Ruth grinned back at her. “Ja. It will be wonderful to have family here.”

      Lizzie nodded in agreement with Mary Ruth, but as her daughter left for the other bedroom with dust cloth and homemade polish in hand, she wondered what the Fishers’ stay at the farm would mean for her and her future.

      The cottage had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a combination great room and kitchen, and a pantry. A covered porch with two rocking chairs and a swing ran along the front outer wall of the dawdi haus. Lizzie had always liked the little house and the comfort it offered guests and the grosseldre, or grandparents, for whom it must have been built.

      Hannah and Rebecca entered the largest bedroom, where Lizzie continued to clean and prepare for their expected guests. “I wiped inside the kitchen cabinets and the countertops, Lizzie,” Hannah said.

      “And what about the pantry?”

      “I helped Hannah carry all the jars you said to bring,” Rebecca said. “Want to see?” There was an air of excitement among the sisters.

      Lizzie studied the two happy girls and smiled. “Ja, show me.” She followed Hannah and Rebecca through the great area to the kitchen nook on the other side.

      “Mam,” young Anne said. “Look how nice they are!”

      The jars of tomatoes, sweet-and-sour chow-chow, peaches and jam appeared colorful on the clean pantry shelves. “You girls have been working hard.” Lizzie smiled. “Danki.” She looked about and didn’t see the two youngest. “Where are Jonas and Ezekiel?” she asked with concern.

      “Outside with Matt,” Mary Ruth said as she approached from the other bedroom across the hall from where Lizzie had been working.

      Anne nodded. “They are pulling out weeds and dead things from the flower garden.”

      No doubt the boys were working, as per her instructions, to clear out the dried rudbeckia blossoms and stems. The flowers also known as black-eyed Susans created a beautiful display of bright color from late spring to mid-or late summer, but in the fall, seeds from the dead centers had to be spread across the soil to ensure next year’s glorious display of gold and black.

      “You have all worked hard on these today. I appreciate it. I couldn’t have prepared the cottage without you.” Lizzie noted with pleasure the smile on Mary Ruth’s face.

      “Is there anything else we need to do?” the girl asked.

      “We’ll go shopping tomorrow for supplies,” Lizzie said. “And we can bake bread, put some in the pantry and freeze a few loaves for them. They are welcome to eat at the farmhouse anytime, but they may want to take some of their meals here in the dawdi haus.”

      “Ja,” Hannah said. “It’s a nice haus. It will be goot to see someone living in it.”

      Lizzie hoped so. “It’s been a long morning without a break to eat. Are any of you hungry?”

      “Ja!” the girls cried.

      Matt entered the house with his younger brothers. “Ja,” he said, apparently hearing the last of Lizzie’s words. “We’re hungry. What’s to eat?”

      Lizzie thought for a moment. “What would you like? Hard work deserves a special meal.”

      “Pizza!” the youngest ones cried.

      “Pizza,” Lizzie said with surprise and a little dismay. Money was tight, but she could make a crust from scratch, and she did have jars of tomato sauce she’d canned earlier in the summer. She could make her own pizza sauce and top it with whatever cheese she had in the refrigerator, fresh green peppers and onions. She could make a second pizza with just the cheese for the youngsters who wanted their pizza plain. “Pizza it is,” she said with a smile. “And then afterward, why don’t I make those candy apples I promised yesterday.” The children wholeheartedly agreed to the plan.

      As she and the children left the dawdi haus and headed toward the farmhouse, Lizzie felt as if they were a family for the first time since the tragic loss of her husband—their father. She experienced a lightening of spirit and hope for the family’s future.

      * * *

      Later that night after the children were in bed, Lizzie went up to her bedroom, the room she’d shared with Abraham, and stared at the bed. Sleep hadn’t come easy to her since Abraham’s passing. Last night the worry over her late husband’s family moving into the dawdi haus had caused her to fret into the early morning until, exhausted, she’d finally fallen into a fitful sleep not long before she had to get up to begin her day again.

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