“Be not dismayed. . . .” Lena thought of young Chris’s disappearance and of Hans’s interest in another girl. She had certainly experienced times of dismay herself, but God was showing her that He was with her. “You’re readin’ so much better—the words are flowin’ so well now. Can ya tell the difference?”
Rebekah nodded, her chin quivering. “I’ve been thinkin’ of what I might do to thank you, Lena Rose,” she said.
“Ain’t necessary. I’m just tickled you’re feelin’ confident.”
Rebekah closed her Bible. “Well, I’d really like to have ya join us for supper a week from tomorrow. I’ve already checked with Cora Ruth, and besides, Emily and the boys are a-hankerin’ to see you again.”
Remembering how sweet her grandchildren were, Lena smiled and accepted the invitation. “You’re really too kind.”
“What’s your favorite meal?” Rebekah asked, adjusting her black apron.
“Oh, don’t go to any trouble.”
“Well, I’m not gonna promise that!” Rebekah grinned.
Lena Rose accompanied her out to the waiting buggy. She would miss these weekly lessons, but she was glad for this chance to have done something useful, maybe even important, to the woman’s happiness and well-being.
Eli offered Lena a ride to town the next morning when she said she needed to run a few errands. And as they rode together, Lena was surprised when he mentioned that Arden Mast wasn’t dating anyone. “In case you were curious,” he told her.
“I had wondered why he wasn’t engaged,” she admitted, feeling peculiar talking with her cousin about Arden like this. While her breakup with Hans hadn’t been the subject of suppertime conversations, it was common knowledge around the Stoltzfus household.
“Well, he was pretty serious about a girl a year or so ago, but her family moved away to Conewango Valley, New York. He couldn’t follow after her because he’d always figured he’d take over his father’s farm. Really, there was no way he could leave Leacock Township.”
“So he loved home more than his girlfriend?”
Eli laughed. “You hit the nail right on the head. He let her go with her family to the new community. Guess he thought she’d stay if they really had a future together.”
This revelation was an eye-opener, to be sure.
And while Lena hadn’t asked to know any of this, she was secretly glad Eli had told her.
While Lena and Mimi cleaned up the dishes that evening, Lena mentioned that, a week from tonight, she’d be away for supper at Melvin and Cora Ruth Ebersol’s house. “I hope ya won’t mind. Rebekah invited me yesterday at her final lesson.”
“Go an’ have a real nice time,” Mimi said, glancing at her as she draped the tea towel over the drainer. “You’ve been an encouragement to her all these weeks, and it seems to have done both of you some good. At first, Harley and I weren’t sure it was altogether wise, to be honest.”
Lena was surprised. “For her to come here for lessons?”
Mimi nodded and looked regretful. “We were so very wrong.” She sighed and turned to lean against the sink.
“Rebekah has shared some things about her past with me,” Lena said, careful not to say too much. “Her life hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure. But she feels it was a blessing that, before he died so suddenly, her husband managed to get himself over to the deacon’s to ask for help.”
Mimi nodded her head, so Lena presumed she knew something about the years of drinking. “I heard about that. It was compassionate of the deacon to take it upon himself to stay with Michael while he went cold turkey,” Mimi said.
Lena agreed. “Rebekah was ever so grateful—said he was awful bad off.” Lena remembered what the woman had told her a week ago—that up until his death, she was praying daily for him to get sober and to stay that way, as well as for the bishop to lift the Bann once Michael was sober. Despite the troubles they’d had, Rebekah missed her shunned husband terribly. “It was Rebekah’s hope she could return home. . . . To think the poor man died before they could be reunited,” Lena said softly. “Talk about heartbreak.”
Mimi lowered her head for a moment, and when she looked at Lena, her eyes were bright with tears. “Your heart was in the right place all along, Lena Rose.”
“I think she and I were drawn to each other. We both feel displaced, I guess. . . .” She sighed. “Truth is, neither of us can go back to the life we once had. But that doesn’t make me miss my family any less.”
Mimi carried her coffee cup to the table and set it down. “We just never know what might be happenin’ to cause a person heartache,” she observed.
Lena agreed. “Mamma used to say that if we have the chance to be God’s hands and feet here on earth, He can use us to lift someone’s spirit . . . and make a difference in a life. We just need to be willin’.”
Mimi nodded, motioning for Lena to bring her coffee cup and sit with her.
The Saturday evening at Melvin Ebersol’s turned out to be full of surprises. For one thing, Rebekah served a delicious ham loaf, and there was a white angel food cake with homemade chocolate ice cream and specialty candies—like a birthday celebration. So much so, in fact, that some of the children were a bit confused by it. “We’re honorin’ my wunnerbaar-gut friend tonight,” Rebekah simply told them.
After the meal was finished and the second blessing was offered, Rebekah asked Emily to come and sit on her lap near the warm cookstove. And to little Emily’s wonderment, Rebekah opened Henner’s Lydia and began to read, just as she’d practiced with Lena Rose, sounding as comfortable as if she had been doing so all of her life.
When the story came
