Honoring the journey—then and now
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Working Together – Apart
It was always Jerry’s. I tried to leave it alone, even when I learned something new or remembered something from my class taught by the experts. But now, without him, the garden along the fence- his garden- is a mess. Eventually, we learned a secret to sustain our successful second marriage. Or else we came…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Indiana Farm Summer
Tuesday, June 26, 1866 Lizzie has been too much indisposed in health to assist much in household duties. I did the ironing and cooking mostly. Mother is still gathering and canning fruit – currants and raspberries. Jonathan and Milton went to Charlottesville to look at some reaping machines. They finally concluded to get an “iron…
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What No One Warned Me About When My Husband Died
Are you kidding me? It’s taken two and a half months to begin to get Social Security payments resolved after Jerry’s death. This week I finally had my appointment- by phone- with a representative from Social Security. Nine weeks after my husband died. Just a month after his death, I drove to the local office…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Knowing Our Place in the World
Monday, June 18, 1866 This morning Debbie Edwards came and Lizzie went to Knightstown with her to see Mahan the Methodist preacher about musical instruments. She wishes to get a melodeon, but he is interested in the sale of cabinet organs. Mother went to see Margaret Clifford [and] found her better. I went to Solomon…
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The Calendar Lies: A Poem
Any child knows the hazy, scorching monthsof June and July are theshortest of all, even though the summer light barely fazes the bats thatflitter from treetopto building, nigh onto eleven.Even though the size of the days is the same onthe page underneatha painting of a beach at sunset. Any bride knows thedays before her wedding…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Rapidly Evolving Quakerism
Sunday, June 10, 1866 Milton, Lizzie and I went to Walnut Ridge to meeting. Enos Prey was there and preached a pretty extensive sermon. E Osborn also preached. There was preaching outdoors. Also the new meeting house is quite commodious but would not contain more than half the people. Went to Joseph Butler’s for dinner.…
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Living Up to a Surprising Family Legacy
I have an impressive role model. Seven years ago today, I spent the day in New Castle, Indiana, paging through musty books, peering at microfilm newspaper articles, and digging through gigantic, bound court record books. My son Ted Shideler and I were just starting my second Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship Award project. For the past…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Fashion Can Be A Quaker Passion
Because I’ve posted so many Sunday entries, today, I’m skipping ahead to the upcoming Wednesday in Mary Jane’s diary. For context, at the time of her writing, she and her sister Lizzie, my three-times great-grandmother, have been home in rural East Central Indiana for six weeks since returning from their first stint teaching freedmen in…
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I Bought A Hoop Today: A Poem
A perfect $3 circle, itsends joined by a shinybrass screw, thehoney-colored hoopcalled me from the thriftstore shelf to jointhe other women who’vestuck a needle in andout, through fabricscarefully selectedand scraps savedto adorn orjoin with colorfulthreads in elegantchains and stitches orruler-straight lines.Someday, I, too, canuse this perfect hoop,a tool to help mepiece together theabandoned fabrics ofmy…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Drawing Back a Veil
Sunday, May 27, 1866 Lizzie and I went to meeting to Elmgrove. Isaac Trueblood and his daughters Miriam & Mary were there. Meeting was small. In the afternoon Milton, Lizzie & Ella Hubbard went up to a spiritual meeting at Greensboro. The speaker was Mrs. Mitchell. They enjoyed it pretty well [and] stopped at Bales’s…
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