After the prayer, Kate Yoder thanked all of them for coming. “I thought today we could just enjoy some gut fellowship together. There’ll be plenty-a time for canning and baking soon enough. Jah?”

Different ones agreed out loud as others nodded their heads, and there were smiles all around.

Kate began to pass the food, a large breakfast casserole with eggs, sausage, cheese, and bread. There was also a basketful of warm maple muffins, fresh from the oven, as well as orange juice and coffee, and tea was brewing, thanks to Ella Mae. As each one dished up and chose a muffin for her plate, Kate shared that Obie was going to work for her husband’s brother Leon. “In case a few of yous haven’t heard,” she added. “The hardest thing is knowing that he’ll be gone for quite a while, and so far away in Sugar Valley.”

“How long?” Rebekah asked, glancing at her sister Mattie.

“A minimum of two years,” Kate replied.

The room grew silent, and Susie assumed this must be news to some of the women, sober as they now looked. Susie felt compassion for Kate and glanced at Ella Mae, planted between Mamma and her sister Emmalyn and right across from Susie and her cousins. What did the Wise Woman think about all this?

In the quiet, Ella Mae leaned forward and looked kindly at Kate. “I daresay your son will return for visits, dearie. And sooner than ya might think.”

“Oh, I hope so,” Kate said, still looking glum.

Mattie spoke up next. “I believe I understand what you’re feelin’, Kate. It was hard to let my children go when they were ready to fly the nest.”

“Well,” Kate replied, “we’ll trust that Obie will be ready when October rolls around.”

Susie wanted to add that Obie most certainly was a responsible and hardworking young man, but that was a given. The thing Kate hadn’t addressed aloud was the fact that no Amish community was ever ready to lose one of their youth to another church district. Even two years was a long time, and if Obie formed attachments elsewhere, there might not ever be a homecoming.

Britta left the one-room schoolhouse with Hazel, each waiting for her girl cousins at the edge of the fenced schoolyard as usual. Once they were all together, they made their way along the same stretch of road, some leisurely swinging their lunch thermoses as they walked along.

Hazel mentioned the Sisters Day breakfast that had taken place that morning. “Wish I could’ve been there.”

“Me too,” Britta said with a glance at Hazel.

“Mamm says once I finish eighth grade, I’ll be able to go to all the Sisters Day gatherings.”

“School will be out for summer soon enough, so hopefully there’ll be more comin’ up,” Britta reassured her.

“And canning bees,” Hazel said. “I love those.”