Even though I haven’t known you long, I’m certain that God brought us together as friends for a special reason. Jah, I realize we’ve talked about our different church backgrounds, and you’ve never wavered about your Beachy home church in Mifflinburg. I understand that.

But I love you, Eliza, and I don’t want to say good-bye. So, what if I left my Old Order community and joined yours so we can be together?

Since I haven’t joined church yet, I wouldn’t be shunned. Will you please think about this?

With all my love,
Eb Lapp

“Goodness. He must’ve loved her a lot to suggest such a thing,” Anna murmured, staring at the faded words. And Mammi must’ve left Strasburg before she found this. . . .

As she tried to absorb what she’d read, Anna was touched by Eb’s willingness to give up his Old Order life to be with Mammi Eliza. And surprisingly, she found a sense of direction in the realization.

She held the letter and reread it, realizing that if her grandmother had received it back so many years ago, these words might have changed the course of her life. “And I never would have been born,” she murmured, sobered at the thought.

The letter spoke to her from the past, in a way Eb never could have anticipated. The young man couldn’t possibly have known what kind of struggles Eliza’s own granddaughter would be facing all these many years later . . . or that his words, though penned for his beloved, would have the power to touch a stranger so deeply!

That evening, Anna wasted no time in writing a letter to her parents. She addressed the issue of how startling it had been to find the old letter from Mammi’s long-ago beau. I believe it’s a confirmation of what I’ve decided to do about Gabe’s invitation to court, she wrote, promising to bring the letter home the next time she visited.

The following evening, after a brilliant Lord’s Day morning and afternoon, Anna decided to call Gabe at the number on the business card he’d given her that first day they’d met.

“Hullo?” Gabe answered on the first ring.

“Gabe, it’s Anna Beachy.”

“Well, how nice to hear from you! Emmie and I are sitting here in the phone shanty while I check my voice messages. What can I do for ya?”

She apologized for giving him such short notice. “If it suits, could I drop by to see you in a little while? I wouldn’t stay long.”

“That’s just fine. Drive carefully, Anna.” It was as if he was saying dear Anna, he sounded so pleased.

When Anna arrived, little Emmie was wearing her nightclothes and a pale blue bathrobe, sitting in the kitchen with her father.