Lilly's Wedding Quilt
Lilly’s
Wedding Quilt
ATCH OF
H
EAVEN
N
OVEL
K
ELLY
L
ONG
(c) 2011 by Kelly Long All rights reserved. No portion of this book 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 written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, e-mail [email protected].
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE
(r)
. (c) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real events, businesses, organizations, and locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Long, Kelly.
Lilly’s wedding quilt / Kelly Long.
p. cm. — (A patch of heaven novel ; 2) ISBN 978-1-59554-871-9 (pbk.)
1. Amish—Fiction. 2. Amish Country (Pa.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS
3612.
O
497
L
56 2011
813’.6—dc22
Printed in the United States of America
11 12 13 14 RRD 5 4 3 2 1
For John Evans, a Champion of the Cross
And for his beloved family: Kimberly, Chris,
Deanna, Sarah Jan, and Andrew
May we all someday be found “washed up on heaven’s shore
.”
C
ONTENTS
Glossary of Pennsylvania Dutch Words and Phrases
G
LOSSARY OF
P
ENNSYLVANIA
D
UTCH
W
ORDS AND
P
HRASES
ach
—an exclamation like
oh
or
my
aentis
—aunts
appenditlitch
—delicious
boppli
—baby/infant
bruder
—brother
buwe
—boy
daed
—dad/father
danki
—thank you
derr Herr
—God
dumm
—dumb/stupid
eck
—bridal table
Englisch
—non-Amish people and their ways
fraa
—wife
—God
grossmudder—
grandmother
guder mariye—
good morning
gut
—good
hallich gebottsdaag
—Happy Birthday
hiya!
—hi
hoech-nawszich
—high-nosed or high-browed
hund
—dog
jah
—yes
kapp
—prayer cap
kinner
—children
kumme
—come
maedel
—girl
mamm
—mother
munn
—moon
naerfich
—nervous
narrish
—crazy
nee—
no
rumspringa
—running-around time
schnee
—snow
schtecklimann
—groom’s go-between
schweschder
—sister
sei so gut
—please
wunderbaar
—wonderful
I
n researching this novel I discovered the fact that Amish communities differ from one to another from both simple to larger-life activities. For example, there are dialectal differences in the spelling of such words as “dawdi” house, which may also be spelled “doddy” or daudi,” depending on the region in question. In addition, praying aloud at the dinner table may also, at times, be a voiced prayer when there is a particular praise offered.
The Amish man who was my main source of information, the truly forthright and dry-humored Dan Miller, told me that it would be difficult to find two Amish communities exactly alike. While all may share basic beliefs in the Lord, family, and work ethics, diversity still exists.
It is a lesson to me as an
Englischer
that though the Amish may appear to live “the simple life,” their differences provide a rich culture for both fact and fiction, and it is my honor to represent some small threads of their ways of life.
—Kelly Long
P
ROLOGUE
P
INE
C
REEK
, P
ENNSYLVANIA
I
n the moment between heartbeats he heard the ominous report of a gun, then lurched forward from a burst of blinding pain. He groaned aloud and stared down at the dark sleeve of his left arm in the moonlit winter night. He tightened his muscular thighs against the horse.
Stay on. Stay on
. The voice seemed both his own and that of a fading echo. He wavered, then concentrated on the saddle horn, the reins, and the lead of the other horse behind him. Primal and metallic, the smell of his own blood mingled in his senses with the distancing shouts of the shooter, and he managed a grim smile. He was now, among supposedly other intriguing things, a horse thief …