The Amish Potato Farmer's Widow Read online

  “He didn’t know he was going to die,” Werner said.

  Jeanie slapped a hand on the table to snap those two out of their silliness. “Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve, but he didn’t. We’ve got to look forward not backward. I don’t want a haus. I want the farm. It should be ours.”

  Magda blinked rapidly. “If he’s happy to give us a haus why not take it?”

  “We have a deposit for a haus if we use the money Malachi and I saved. And, Magda, you must have a little money set aside from the sale of the house you were living in before we all moved here?”

  “I do. We could put our money together and —”

  Jeanie interrupted her. “It’s not about that. Besides, we have this haus if we can stay here. The point is, sure, we could get by without this farm, but I want what was rightfully Malachi’s. He worked so hard for this. He saw it as not only his future but all our futures.”

  Magda moved uncomfortably in her chair.

  “I should’ve gone with you.” Werner shook his head, slumping further into the chair with his hand over his forehead.

  “Nee.” Jeanie felt awful that they didn’t think she’d done a good enough job. Werner was impressionable and young. The last thing she wanted was to disappoint him. “The result wouldn’t have been any different if you’d come, and it might even have been worse.”

  “Things were never the same since Zelda arrived. She changed him.” Now Magda was the one shaking her head.

  “Let’s get back to work and put everything out of our minds. That’s all we can do. We’ll leave everything in Gott’s hands.” Jeanie looked from mother to son trying to cheer them up.

  “You know what day it is tomorrow?”

  “Jah, I know, Werner. It’s planting day.” It was March seventeen, the day on which they planted the crop. It was hard and almost backbreaking work.

  Werner groaned. “Is he trying to get the last of the hard work out of us? Is that what he’s doing?”

  Jeanie sucked in her lips. “He’s not like that. He wouldn’t know when we plant.”

  “Nee, he’s not bad natured, he’s ignorant. Ignorant of what it’s taken to get this place on its feet. We can’t complain about an honest day’s work. We have to keep working as hard as we have and never let up until we have to leave. Now, a good meal and an early night is what we all need.” Magda gave a nod of her head.

  “I am against planting tomorrow.”

  “Why?” The two women asked as they looked at Werner.

  “I think we should wait to plant. We’ve had a late cold snap and I don’t think we’re done with the frosts.”

  Jeanie had to be the one to make the call. “I say we plant.”

  “Nee, I don’t think so. It wouldn’t hurt to wait a week or so.”

  “We plant tomorrow and do what we’ve always done.” She saw by Werner’s face he didn’t like the idea. “We’ve already got people coming to help, and, if I’m wrong, I’ll take the consequences.”

  Werner shook his head. “We all will. We’ll have to pray for mild weather.”

  “We’ll do what you say Jeanie,” Magda said.

  “All right.” Werner frowned, clearly disapproving.

  “Now, I’ve made Malachi’s favorite for dinner.”

  Jeanie was glad that the planting decision was made and Magda was rallying to a more positive mood and trying to drag her son along with her.

  “Chicken and asparagus pie?” Werner asked.

  Magda shook her head. “Nee.”

  “I know there wasn’t time to cook a roast, and I would’ve smelled it.” Werner sniffed the air.

  “Wrong. It’s plain old beef and bean casserole.”

  Jeanie had never known that to be a meal Malachi particularly enjoyed, but he did like plain food, such as sausages and mashed potatoes. That was going to be her next guess. Good thing for them they all liked potatoes. There was never any shortage of those. “Did Bishop Luke and Ruth stop by today?”

  “Jah, they’ve been and gone.”

  “What happened?” Jeanie asked. “What did they talk about?”

  “Nothing much. They were only here about an hour. They asked if we needed help with anything and I said we were fine.”

  “Good.”

  Over the evening meal, Jeanie told them the rest of what Amos had said about Zelda’s brothers running the place and offering to keep Werner on as manager. Werner said he had no interest in staying on and suggested, if the worst were to happen, they’d start afresh somewhere else. The three of them all agreed that’s what they’d do.

  Chapter 6

  They had extra hands arranged for the next two days to plant all of the fields. During those two days there was no sign of Amos. He hadn’t come to see how they were getting along on at their busiest time of year apart from their harvesting days.

  Not long after breakfast the day after the planting was completed, Amos came to the house. Werner was in the fields checking on things and Jeanie was heading out to join him when she saw Amos’s buggy approaching. “Put the teakettle on, Magda. We have company.”

  “Who is it?” Magda’s head appeared at the kitchen window.

  “It’s Amos.” Jeanie went out and waited for him at one side of their driveway, the side near the hitching post. When he got closer, she searched his face to see if he had good news for them or bad.

  He raised his hand in the air. “Hello.”

  “Hi, Amos. It’s good to see you.” If you have good news, that is, she felt like saying.

  He stepped down, secured the buggy and then slowly walked over to her.

  “Magda’s just put the kettle on. Care for a cup of kaffe?”

  “Jah, denke.”

  The only thing she sensed from him was the tension he was covering with too big a smile. She didn’t know whether things would go right or wrong. “Magda’s in the kitchen. Shall I fetch Werner too?”

  “Nee it’s not necessary.”

  There was an awkward silence as they walked. “How’s Zelda?”

  “I haven’t seen her for a few days. She was okay then.”

  “Oh, good.” That meant she hadn’t been in his ear continually, trying to sway him one way or another.

  They walked into the kitchen and Magda greeted him and pulled out a chair. “Here. Sit in this one.”

  He chuckled. “Okay. Why this particular one?”

  “It’s just that from there you can look out the window and see all our hard work.” Magda bent down beside him once he was seated and pointed outside.

  “Ah, that’s right. You’ve done the planting.”

  Jeanie sat next to him. “It’s all done.”

  “Hot tea or kaffe, Amos?”

  “Just a half a cup of black kaffe, denke, Magda.”

  Magda placed a plate of sliced fruitcake on the table and then proceeded to make the hot drinks.

  “Have you decided what you want to do yet — with the farm, I mean?” Jeanie figured the straightforward approach the best one.

  “I’ll wait until Magda sits down with us.”

  “Of course.” Jeanie watched Amos as he looked over the fields and hoped he was thinking what a marvellous job they’d done.

  When they all had their hot drinks and Magda was seated, he took a slow sip of coffee and then placed the mug back down on the table. It felt like ages before he spoke. Jeanie and Magda looked at one another waiting for him to say something.

  “As long as the three of you can manage the farm the way you have been, I am inclined to leave it in your capable hands.”

  Jeanie sprang to her feet. “Really?” He raised a hand and she slowly sat again, dreading what was to come. She knew there was more.

  “I’ve decided to reassess the situation in six months.”

  Jeanie slumped down. “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t want to rush into any decisions. I’ve got two lots of people in my life who each want me to do different things with this place. I’m torn.” The faint lines
in his forehead deepened.

  “Do what is right,” Magda said.

  “I don’t know, Magda. What is right? The farm is mine, and yes, I pledged it to my friend, but now he’s gone. He didn’t sign the contract and that might have been for a reason, because it’s still mine. Maybe it was meant to happen this way.”

  “Jah, but from our point of view, if he’d gone in and signed those papers —”

  He cut Jeanie off. “He didn’t though and now I have … he just didn’t.”

  Magda pushed the plate of cake forward to Amos and he shook his head. “Nee denke. I’ve just eaten.”

  “What do we do now, then?” Magda asked.

  Amos smiled at her. “Just continue doing what you’ve been doing.”

  “Continue to work hard despite knowing it could be snatched away from us at any minute?” The words slipped out of Jeanie’s mouth, but she no longer cared so much if she sounded rude. It was a lot less than she could’ve said.

  His dark eyes gazed upon her. “Let’s not forget it’s my farm to do with what I want.”

  “Well you can —”

  Suddenly, Magda’s hand covered Jeanie’s just in time stopping her from losing her temper. She’d been about to say some words that Amos had likely never heard before, and certainly not from the mouth of an Amish woman.

  Magda said, “We appreciate the chance to keep this place, Amos, we really do. We’ve worked so hard on it.”

  “I know, and that’s why I offered to buy you a haus should I decide to do something else with this place. I thought it’d compensate you for Malachi breathing life back into this farm.”

  “We all worked on it, not just Malachi,” Magda pointed out. “We’re a team, and we all worked well with each other. We’ll all work harder to make up for one less team member.”

  “Jah. I’m sure.”

  Jeanie pressed her lips together, surprised at her mother-in-law talking about teams and members. She’d never heard her talk like that before. Amos did have a point about it being his place, but she couldn’t get past the fact that it could’ve been theirs if Malachi hadn’t put off going to the law office.

  They engaged in small talk for the next fifteen minutes until Amos drained the last of his coffee.

  “Denke for the opportunity, Amos. We are grateful,” Jeanie finally said when she thought he was nearly ready to leave.

  “I just want to do the right thing by everybody.”

  Jeanie knew he wanted to do the ‘right thing’ by Zelda. Had he offered the farm to her brothers, or had it been Zelda who'd asked for them to work there? It was odd if she’d asked such a thing seeing their wedding hadn’t even been announced yet.

  * * *

  When Amos left, Werner came running over to Jeanie as she stood waving goodbye. “What did he say?”

  “He said we could stay here a while and then …”

  “Then we don’t know what,” Magda added from behind her.

  “Oh.” Werner looked as though someone had punched him hard, and Jeanie felt sorry for him.

  “Things will work out. Just remember that,” Magda said.

  Werner exhaled deeply. “I guess so.”

  Magda continued, “If Malachi was here, he’d say things have always worked out for us and they’ll continue to do so.”

  Werner nodded and then walked away dragging his feet as he went. “I hate to see him like that,” Jeanie whispered.

  “It’s hard for all of us not knowing our future, but especially for a young man just starting out.”

  Chapter 7

  The next morning, Jeanie woke to Magda shaking her. She sat bolt upright. “What is it?”

  “We’ve had a frost.”

  Jeanie ripped off the covers and raced to the window. A frost was the very worst thing that could happen days after planting. For as far as she could see the ground was covered in a sparkling white blanket. “Ach nee! Does Werner know?”

  “Jah, he’s the one who told me.”

  Jeanie felt so bad. “I should’ve listened to him.” She spun around and looked at Magda. “Malachi wouldn’t have made this mistake. This is awful.” They’d never had a frost after planting; it was a major disaster. They could lose the majority of their crop if not all, especially if it rained as well.

  “Why would Gott punish us like this?” Magda sobbed and Jeanie quickly put her arms around her.

  Magda and Werner had trusted in her decision and she’d let them all down. There was no worse feeling. When Jeanie saw how bad her mother-in-law felt, she searched her mind for what Malachi would’ve said to cheer her mood. “It’ll all work out for the good. Just you wait and see.” It was hard saying those things when she didn’t believe them.

  Magda stared at her. “It’s a frost, Jeanie.”

  “I know. We’re not the only potato farm that’s had a frost, and we won’t be the last. We’ve had two good years, we can cope with less profits this year.”

  “It’ll look bad to Amos.”

  “He can’t blame us for a frost.” He could blame them for not being more aware of the weather conditions. In her haste to keep things rolling she’d acted impulsively.

  “He won’t look at that. He’ll just look at the amount on the ledger.”

  Jeanie didn’t think anything like that would matter, not really. They probably wouldn’t even be there when harvest time came. “All we can do is what we can do. Don’t be sad.”

  Magda wiped her eyes and then nodded. “It’s just hard, all these bad things have happened. I’ve been trying to keep myself from falling apart and now the frost has happened I don’t have any more left in me to guard my heart against this sorrow.”

  “I’ll get ready and come downstairs.”

  Tears fell down Magda’s face and she collapsed onto Jeanie’s bed. “He’ll never be back. When will I see him again? I don’t want to die soon, but I want to see him again. I can’t cope with the ache in my heart for a moment longer.” Magda reached out for Jeanie’s hand. “What if something happens to you or Werner? I wouldn’t be able to go on.”

  Jeanie patted Magda’s hand.

  “Calm down. Nothing’s going to happen. You can't be so fearful. Trust in God.”

  Magda nodded. “We used to teach you about God, and now you're teaching us.”

  Jeanie had to smile as she sat on the bed with Magda. “I’m only telling you what you told me. It's what you know in your heart.” Jeanie leaned forward and wiped the tears from Magda’s face. “You’ve been putting on a brave front for us all, haven’t you?”

  “I tried … I tried to carry on and be strong. It is a comfort to know he’s gone home and is with his bruder, but I’ll miss him so much.” Tears poured out of Magda’s eyes as she sobbed uncontrollably. Jeanie leaned forward and enclosed her mother-in-law in her arms, remembering Magda hadn’t broken down on the day of the funeral or even shed a tear. She’d kept it all bottled in. There was nothing she could say to make her feel better, so she continued to hold her as she sobbed. “I’m sorry. I should be the one comforting you,” Magda finally said.

  “Nee, nee. He was your son.”

  “Now I’ve lost him and we might lose this place.”

  Jeanie sat straight. “Things will work out. What's the worst that can happen? We lose the farm and then, so what? We’ll start again on our own somewhere and make a success out of whatever we do. That's what Gott's plan might be. We don't have to hang on to the farm as though this is all we can ever have.”

  Magda sniffed. “You don't think so?”

  In her heart, she desperately wanted to keep the farm. She smoothed some loose strands of hair away from Magda’s face. “That's right, so don't you worry about a thing.”

  “Denke, you've made me feel better.”

  “That's good. Now how about I make you some breakfast?”

  “A cup of hot tea is what I need first.”

  “I’ll bring it up.” Jeanie changed into her day clothes, pushed her hair into a kapp, and headed do
wnstairs. Werner was nowhere to be seen and at this moment she couldn’t have faced him. He had been right about waiting a few days before planting, and she’d been so wrong.

  When she placed the kettle on the stovetop, she closed her eyes and asked for extra strength for whatever would come her way.

  When she took the tea up to her room, Magda was no longer there, so she peeped into Magda's room. She had fallen asleep on top of her carefully made bed. Jeanie placed the tea quietly on the nightstand and just as she was walking out of the room, a low rumbling sound met her ears. Magda was snoring. Jeanie stifled a giggle as she softly closed the door.

  Chapter 8

  For the next two weeks, they did what they could to repair the havoc the frost had caused to the newly planted potato crop. Even though they’d never had a disaster so big, every potato farmer had to be prepared for such events. The frost along with Malachi’s absence and Amos’s indecision, was taking a toll on the three of them.

  “Wake up, Jeanie. You’re not sick, are you?”

  She opened her eyes to see Magda. Then she saw the morning light streaming into the room. “Nee. I’m okay. I’m just really tired.”

  Magda sat on the side of her bed. “I’ve had the best idea ever. It came to me last night when I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning all night because I knew I was missing something.”

  Jeanie rubbed her eyes. “Missing something? Did you forget to brush your hair or clean your teeth last night or something?”

  “It’s no time for jokes. Sit up and listen to me. This is serious.”

  Jeanie inhaled deeply and then pushed herself up onto her elbows while Magda leaned forward and fluffed up some pillows to tuck behind her. “What are you missing, Magda?”

  “I’ve had the most brilliant idea. You want to keep the farm for us all, jah?”

  “You know I do.”

  “The answer is simple. Marry Amos.”

  Jeanie’s mouth fell open and she leaned back into the soft pillows. “Magda, nee. Now you’re the one with the jokes, but it’s too early in the morning to laugh.” Jeanie rubbed her eyes wishing she could just have a few moments more in her warm bed.