time and am now going home with people I love. Erin and Isaiah, I can not thank you enough for your kindness and care. I appreciate it more than I can tell you.”
“It is our pleasure. You have been a blessing to us,” Erin declared, to which Isaiah agreed.
Jacob, Joshua and Jenna Mae thanked them over and over. They were so pleased that Charity had found such a good place to stay and with good Amish people. Jacob paid for all their rooms and the food.
Finally they were ready to leave. With tears in her eyes Charity hugged them and thanked them again. Ted Morrison was parked outside and ready to go. He had a good visit with his relatives. Jacob and Joshua again tried to give him money, but he refused.
“I wanted to make the trip. I was as worried as all of you when I heard that Charity was in the hospital. Besides, it gave me a chance to visit with relatives I haven’t seen in a long time. We grew up together and were very close.”
Joshua sat in the front with Ted while Jacob and Jenna Mae sat in the back with Charity between them. In spite of her ordeal, Charity was full of chatter about all she had seen and learned.
“Daed, I know what we can do to make my store more prosperous. I have ordered two sewing machines so we can make clothes at the store. I am going to add a section for fine china and items for the house. Will you add a room so that you can make furniture? You do such good work.”
She talked on in her enthusiastic plans until her mother touched her knee.
She looked over and smiled fondly to see Jacob sound asleep. She reached over and held her mother’s hand, happy and thankful to be with them.
They stopped in Canton, Ohio for gas, lunch and restrooms. Jacob and Joshua insisted on paying for the gas and Ted’s lunch. Refreshed, they started out again. At eight they pulled into Charity’s driveway. She was disappointed that Jeremiah was at Matthew’s and wasn’t there to greet her.
“Mr. Morrison, if I can ever do anything for you let me know. Come into my store for fresh loaves of bread and I’ll be insulted if you try to pay for them. You have done so much for me and I do appreciate it.”
“Charity, dear girl, I’ve known you all your life, and I was as worried about you as your folks were. It was a pleasure to be able to do something for you. I’ll take your folks home and then get to my own home. Pearl must be anxious about me.”
Charity found that Deborah had left food for her and freshly washed towels that smelled so good of the sunshine. She wasn’t very hungry, but did eat a little, said her prayers, read the Biewel and went to bed.
Charity was awakened by a mass landing on her chest. Jeremiah was squealing with delight to see his mother. He could not get enough hugs and kisses.
“Mamm, my sweet mamm, you promised me you would be back. I prayed every night that you were safe and would come back to me.”
“Of course I would come back to you. I could not live without my precious little man.”
She breathed a prayer of thanks that no one had told Jeremiah of her horrendous experience. She knew he would not understand and would be terrified to hear of it.
“Tell me. How was school this week and did you enjoy living with oom Matthew and tante Deborah?”
“Mamm, you would not believe how wunderbaar school is. I lieb it so much and the big children let me play with them. Tante Marilyn said I am actually a second grader because you taught me so much here at home. I am adding and subtracting now and spelling big words. I can speak English.”
“Darling, I hope you don’t call tante Marilyn as tante in school. You must call her Mrs. Kime. The other children will not think it is fair for you to have your aunt as your teacher. They might think you get special attention.”
“I do call her Mrs. in school. No, only a few of the children knew she is my tante. She explained that to me on the first day. What do we have for breakfast?” he asked excitedly jumping up and down on her.
“What would you like?”
“Pancakes!”
“All right. Let me get up, wash and dress. Goodness, look at that. It’s late. It’d seven o’ clock. I must be lazy this morning, and I’m so happy to be back with you.”
“Don’t worry mamm. Oom Mathew and oom Lawrence have already done all the work. They said to let you rest and they did the work because they lieb you.”
“I will have to make them an exceptionally good nachtesse.”
“YES! And I will help you. Oom Matthew took me fishing and we played ball and we went on a hike and we had a picnic and -----”
“Oh, my goodness. You had such a good time, I did not need to come back.
“Oh yes you did. I need my mamm. I lieb you so much.”
“And you are so dear to me. How are the Grassdawdis?”
“All are fine.”
“Good. Let us go start our day.”
Charity could hardly wait to visit Leah Kime and tell her how much she appreciated Joshua and thank her for letting him come to see about her. She spent that day washing her clothes and weeding her flower garden. Vegetables were gone at this time of year. Church people had canned for her.
Soon it would be Jeremiah’s seventh birthday and Charity wanted to do something special for him. He was such a good little boy and tried very hard to be the man of the house. She smiled thinking of the ways he had “helped” her.
Jenna Mae had the worst cold she had ever had. It became so hard for her to breathe that Jacob insisted she go to the hospital. They treated her and took x-rays. Dr. Alicea came to the waiting room to talk to the family. He was so serious looking that they became alarmed. Jacob stood up and demanded, “What is it?”
“Please, Mr. Startz. Sit down and I’ll tell all of you.” They sat expectantly and he took a deep breath. “Mrs. Startz has cancer of the lungs and it has spread too far for us to treat it successfully. She can take chemo and live another three or four months, but, truthfully, it would be awfully hard on her.”
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