A Reunion of Hearts

By Beth Wiseman

Ruth and Gideon Beiler experienced one of life’s most tragic events. Unable to get past their grief, the couple abandoned their Amish faith and went in different directions, though neither could bear to formally dissolve the marriage. When their loved ones reach out to them to come home for a family reunion, Ruth has reason to believe that Gideon won’t be there. Gideon also thinks that Ruth has declined the invitation. Family and friends are rooting for them to reunite, but will it all be enough for Ruth and Gideon to get past their grief and recapture a time when they were in love and had a bright future ahead of them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9780310352747

Beth Wiseman

Bestselling and award-winning author Beth Wiseman has sold over two million books. She is the recipient of the coveted Holt Medallion, is a two-time Carol Award winner, and has won the Inspirational Reader's Choice Award three times. Her books have been on various bestseller lists, including CBA, ECPA, Christianbook, and Publishers Weekly. Beth and her husband are empty nesters enjoying country life in south-central Texas. Visit her online at BethWiseman.com; Facebook: @AuthorBethWiseman; Twitter: @BethWiseman; Instagram: @bethwisemanauthor

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COPYRIGHT

ZONDERVAN

A Reunion of Hearts

Copyright © 2019 by Elizabeth Wiseman Mackey

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN: 978-0-310-35274-7 (e-book)

Epub Edition March 2019 9780310352747

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

CIP data is available upon request.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America

19 20 21 22 23 / LSC / 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Glossary

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Epilogue

Discussion Questions

Acknowledgments

About the Author

To Rae of Sunshine, always remembered, never forgotten.

GLOSSARY*

ach: oh

aenti: aunt

appeditlich: delicious

bann: a temporary period of excommunication intended to cause a change of heart and end errant behavior in a church member

bedauerlich: sad

boppli/bopli/ boplin: baby, babies

brot: bread

bruder: brother

bruders: brothers

bruderskinner: nieces/nephews

bu: boy

buwe: boys

daadi: grandfather

daadi haus/dawdy haus: a small house built onto or near the main house for grandparents to live in

danki: thank you

dat/daed: dad, father

Deutsch/Deitsch: Dutch

dochder: daughter

dochdern: daughters

Dummle!: hurry!

Englisch/English/Englisher: English: non-Amish person

eck: married couple’s corner table at their wedding reception

Fehla: sin

fraa: wife

freind: friend

freinden: friends

froh: happy

gegisch: silly

gern/gaern gschehne: you’re welcome

Gmay: church district

Gott: God

groossdaadi/grossdaadi: grandpa

groossmammi/grossmammi: grandma

Gude/guder mariye: Good morning

gut: good

Gut nach/gut natcht: Good night

haus: house

hund: dog

Ich liebe dich: I love you

jah: yes

kaffi: coffee

kapp: prayer covering or cap

kichli/kuche/kichlin: cookie, cookies

kinner: children

kitzn: cat

krank: ill

kuche: cake

kuchen: cakes

kumm: come

leib/liewe: love, a term of endearment

maed: young women, girls

maedel: young woman

mamm/mudder: mom, mother

mammi: grandmother

mann: husband

mei: my

Meidung: avoidance, shunning

millich: milk

naerfich: nervous

narrisch: crazy

nee: no

onkel: uncle

Ordnung: written and unwritten rules in an Amish district

rumspringa/rumschpringe: period of running around when a young person turns sixteen

schee: pretty

schmaert: smart

schtupp: family room

schweschder: sister

schweschdere: sisters

sohn/suh: son

Was iss letz?: What’s wrong?

Wie bischt?: How are you?

Wie geht’s: How do you do? or Good day!

wunderbaar: wonderful

ya: yes

*The German dialect spoken by the Amish is not a written language and varies depending on the location and origin of the settlement. These spellings are approximations. Most Amish children learn English after they start school. They also learn high German, which is used in the Sunday services.

CHAPTER 1

Ruth Beiler stepped out of the red Buick Enclave she’d rented at the airport and pressed her feet on the dewy grass that twinkled in the early-morning light. Her brown loafers sank into the lush green yard where she’d spent her childhood. Memories of wonderful times flooded her mind—playing in the sprinkler with Esther on hot summer days, hosting Sunday singings, collecting eggs, planting a garden, and hanging clothes on the line, only to argue about who would take them down later.

Ruth had missed her family, especially her sister. Esther and Amos had lived in their family home for two years now, since their parents relocated to the daadi haus on the north end of the property. The house had been in the Stoltzfus family for four generations.

Coming back to Lancaster County, even after five years, still fueled the grief Ruth carried around like a cement backpack, an unwanted accessory that would forever be a part of who she was now. Losing a child did that to a person.

She stood in the grass, feet rooted to the ground, as she scanned her surroundings. The barn sported a fresh coat of red paint. The chicken coop had been overhauled with new wiring, and there was a wooden house with a ramp inside. Several hens pushed for space to crane their necks out to squawk a disgruntled welcome.

The white farmhouse looked exactly the same. The porch was painted a light gray, and two white rockers rested beside each other with a small table in between. Green blinds in the windows were drawn halfway. The flowerbeds were in full bloom with begonias, lilies, freesia, and daffodils—their mother’s favorite.

Ruth breathed in the familiar scent of the flowers mingled with freshly cut hay and manure. Altogether, the smells of springtime created an aroma Ruth had found herself trying to remember at her new home in Florida.

Like a mirror cracking before her eyes, the pleasant memories broke and fell in pieces, giving way to the dark part of her mind where the pain was still fresh. The sirens, the bright lights on the cars spinning red and blue, and the police marching up the porch steps.

She and Gideon were having supper with Esther and Amos when they received the news that Grace had been killed. Their only child. Beautiful, ten-year-old Grace was riding in a buggy with Mae Beiler, Ruth’s mother-in-law, when she was killed along with her grandmother. Onlookers said a fire alarm sounded nearby, and Mae’s horse got spooked and darted into traffic on Lincoln Highway.

Ruth squeezed her eyelids closed as the images of that night resurfaced, causing tears to fill her eyes. For the week she would be here, she’d promised herself she would try to focus on happy memories and not let her grief overshadow this time with her sister and other family members who were coming from out of state for the reunion.

She opened her eyes, took a deep breath, and pictured two little girls playing in the sprinkler not ten feet from where she was standing. It was a technique she learned from her support group, to quickly replace the bad memory with a good one. Ruth would need to practice a lot to get through this week.

In Florida she was able to compartmentalize and keep the sadness out of sight and out of mind, even if only for a while. That might prove to be a difficult task here, where the good and bad memories collided. She hoped that by coming for a visit, she would return filled with an abundance of new memories to offset the bad.

Staying with her sister’s family would be better than staying at the house she and Gideon had abandoned when they left the Old Order Amish community, each hauling a grief that divided them as they went their separate ways.

Gideon lived in Ohio now. He’d relocated near cousins there after running away, the same