My Amish Love

Goodbye, Mary

The next three weeks passed by so quickly. While David and Daniel finished renovating the house, I learned how to cook better, and now, I tend to my garden by myself. Mr. Yoder started building a fence around my garden with the help of a few other men in the community and it's almost finished. Next on the agenda, build a barn. After that, our house will almost be finished, and just in time for our wedding. Mr. Yoder said everything would be done being built by early spring. After our wedding, Daniel and I will spend the rest of the winter months visiting relatives and collecting gifts. Apparently, he has over two-hundred relatives for us to visit. We should be home by April according to Daniel.

I've also been spending a lot of time with Mary and Helen. I took Mary dancing in the middle of the street, made her a pizza, taught her about some Disney princesses, let her wear some of my old clothes, and showed her how to do yoga. I wanted Mary's last month on earth to be special. With her due date quickly approaching, she could give birth at any moment. Because she's in critical condition, I visit her most days and spend a few hours with her in the afternoon before going to Daniel's house or back to my home.

"How do you feel?" I asked Mary as I put a warm towel on her forehead. She had been having a really bad fever for the past few days. She said her time was coming and she was ready. Not to be rude, but every time Mary talked about dying, I just wanted to get up and leave the room. However, I was the only person who really knew about her sickness, and I was also the only person she could talk to about it.

"I feel better," she said, smiling at Helen who was drawing a picture in the corner. "Thank you for the memories you have given me over the past few weeks. You have other things you could be doing, but instead, you're here with me."

"I loved every minute of it. You don't have to thank me for anything."

"Casey," Mary said, grabbing my hand tightly, "this baby is coming tomorrow, I can feel it. I'll ask David to take me to the birth center tomorrow morning before sunrise. Please give the letter in my top drawer to David after my funeral. Don't give it to him before the funeral, he's going to need it. There's another letter in there too, it's for Helen when she turns fourteen," she said quietly. Whenever Helen was around, Mary spoke in a whisper-like voice.

"Mary, are you sure you're going to die? I don't want you to go..." I said, looking away as tears flooded my eyes.

"No one wants someone they care about to die, Casey. But we all have to go some time, it's just my time."

I've grown close to Mary over the past few weeks. Normally I wouldn't let myself get attached to someone so easily, especially someone who was going to die. I couldn't help it, though, she took me under her wing like an older sister would do for her little sister. She had so much wisdom about being a wife and being a mother. She made an impression on me that I'd never forgotten.

"How can you be so calm about this? Your children won't have a mother." I whispered.

"I'm content. I've spent enough days being sad about my life, can't I just be happy? I'm going to heaven where I'll see my great grandmother again. This isn't goodbye forever, only for a little while. I've learned to count my blessings. Can you please keep the letters for me? At least David's."

"Yes, I'll keep it."

I walked around the bed and opened her top drawer. There we two hand-written letters with Helen and David's name on them. Just holding the letters saddened me. Mary had nine months to come to terms with her fate, I only had three weeks. Her husband and child have had no time to prepare themselves for what was about to happen. Twenty-four hours from today, Mary will be dead, David will be a widow, and Helen will be a motherless child.