“Nee, not since she was three, when her Mamma died,” Sadie replied. “Gabe and his bride had the dearest love story,” she went on, revealing that his wife, Emily, had fallen gravely ill with a rare form of leukemia while they were courting. “But that didn’t keep him from marryin’ her and lovin’ her right up to the very end.” Sadie explained. “She was the only girl he ever courted.”

Now Anna had a lump in her throat. She pressed her lips together, shaking her head at this news. “Gabe knew she might not live long?”

“That’s what Luke told Glen and me—Luke knows Gabe especially well, though Glen and I’ve known Gabe and his family since he was an infant.”

Anna was struck by the heartbreaking account. Sacrificial love, she thought, deeply touched.

“Gabe and Emily had a couple of difficult years with her health, but then suddenly her cancer went into remission, and the doctors were encouraged. When their baby was born, Gabe wanted to name her Emily for his wife.”

“Emmie’s the perfect nickname,” Anna murmured, putting it together.

Sadie placed a large bowl in front of her and began to slice the peeled apples straight into it, an apple in one hand and a paring knife in the other. “Mind you, I wouldn’t have shared this, but you asked.”

“Isn’t it commonly known?”

Sadie said she didn’t know how widely known the specifics were. “But Emily was well loved—more than five hundred people attended her funeral, Amish and English alike.”

“She must’ve been very special,” Anna said softly.

“I didn’t know Emily quite as well, but you might ask Gabe ’bout her sometime, if the time is right.”

“Oh, I don’t see how it would ever come up.” Anna would never think of pressing him on it, but she found it amazing such a robust and energetic man would choose to marry a woman who was so terribly ill.

Chapter 30

The following Monday evening, after another busy day of tours, Anna asked Sadie if she might have some leftover fabric. “I’d like to make a special thank-you card for Mart’s mother,” Anna said, describing the delicious picnic lunch she and Mart had enjoyed.

Sadie hurried off to her sewing room, and Anna began to sketch a rectangular picnic basket like the one Mammi Eliza had used years ago. “It’s a bit old-fashioned looking,” she told Sadie when she returned, “but I like it.”

“You’re right . . . and it’s a gut idea.” Sadie went to the fridge and began to dish up some ice cream for Glen.

Later, when Anna filled the basket shape with batting, she decided to dismiss any further notions she had about locating Mammi Eliza’s stone wall.

I’ve done all I can, she thought, realizing it was taking up too much of her time and attention.