“But it did to you?” Eb asked, nodding sagely.

“Since my childhood I’ve been very close to her, so maybe I just picked up something about her sincerity when she’d bring up the stone wall. That and a tall pin oak tree . . . evidently she waited for you there,” Anna said.

With a handkerchief, Eb wiped his moist eyes, then his forehead. “A couple years after that summer, I married a wunnerbaar young woman. My disappointment over Eliza’s leavin’ actually led me to Miriam, my bride of sixty-five happy years.”

Anna glanced at Gabe, and he held her gaze, his eyes full of affection.

“You two . . . are yous a couple?” Eb asked, slowing his rocking some.

“Just started dating,” Gabe said, winking at Anna.

“But you ain’t Amish, are ya, Anna?” Eb asked.

Gabe intervened and said she was Beachy Amish. “A close cousin to our way of life, as you know.”

“Ah, same as Eliza.” Eb smiled. “Makes sense.”

“But Anna says she’ll be joinin’ the People here, doin’ much like what you offered to do for Eliza,” Gabe explained.

“Well, how about that. A fine turnabout,” Eb said, shaking his head again. “Praise be!”

“Only the Lord knows the path our lives will take. Feels a little to me like your relationship with Eliza’s come full circle, Dawdi . . . and right here before your eyes,” Gabe said, looking earnestly at Anna.

She nodded, deeply touched by his words—and this remarkable visit. To think that Eb and Mammi’s heartbreak made it possible for Gabe and me to meet and fall in love, she thought, marveling at the goodness of God’s plans.

“The Lord knew this all along,” she whispered, sighing happily.

Epilogue

My parents accomplished the joyful challenge of hosting the Beachy clan for Thanksgiving Day. I enjoyed helping with the large spread of food and seeing all my nephews and nieces, as well as dear Wanita, too.

“We sisters must stick together,” Wanita whispered to me, and I knew she was still struggling with the loss of Mammi Eliza and of me, living now in Strasburg for good.

The day following that reunion, I welcomed Gabe and Emmie to Mifflinburg, having invited them to meet my parents. After the initial greeting there in Mamm’s warm kitchen, I was heartened to see Dat invite Gabe out to the pony stable while Emmie and I enjoyed our fill of leftover cookies and bars from yesterday’s variety of desserts.

I had previously shared with my parents that Emmie did not speak, but that didn’t keep my mother from engaging her with a musical top and other toys she kept in a box for the grandchildren.