Nearly 15 years ago, I was doing a signing at the mall in Vancouver, WA when Marietta Couch and her sister Ruth, who is Mennonite, walked into the bookstore. In the moment, Ruth’s head covering was what connected all of us as I stood in front of a stack of my Amish novels. Soon Marietta and Ruth were talking about their Amish family and growing up in the Nappanee, Indiana area, a place I’d recently visited.
Ruth lives in Colorado while Marietta, who left the Amish in her twenties, and I both live in the greater Portland/Vancouver metro area, so she and I made plans to meet for lunch so we could continue our conversation. It turns out, all these years later, that conversation is still going strong.
Yes, Marietta answers my questions about Anabaptist communities, and she even reads my manuscripts for accuracy, but our friendship is based on the here and now–not in my fictional worlds, lol. We both have adult children. And grandchildren. We’re both adoptive moms. We both grew up in rural areas, and we both have 3 siblings. Although the Amish are far more traditional of course than my background, we both grew up in conservative environments. And we’ve both attended similar churches as adults.
We get together every other month or more. We’ve shared meals with our husbands. My husband, Peter, and I have met Marietta’s other 2 sisters, her 2 brothers-in-law, and her mother (who has since, sadly, passed away) during a second research trip to Indiana. Marietta has met my sisters. And a year ago, my husband and I happened to be in Victoria, BC when Marietta and her husband and Ruth and her husband were all on a cruise together that docked in Victoria. We spent a wonderful evening together! It was so good to see Ruth again and meet her husband.
Marietta has turned out to be a friend who is wise and understanding. She’s a friend I can be vulnerable and honest with–and I hope I’m that kind of friend for her too. She’s become a trusted confidant. A true forever friend!
I’m so grateful Marietta and Ruth decided to step into the bookstore, and with their Amish backgrounds still take a chance on talking with a non-Amish, Amish-fiction writer that day. If you read the acknowledgments in my books, you’ll see Marietta’s name in close to 20 of them (I’ve lost track!). I really can’t thank and acknowledge her enough (and God!) for what she’s given me.
What a delightful story of friendship… especially the longevity! May the Lord keep your friendship in the palm of his hands.
Thank you, Abbie!
Great to have stayed in contact all these years.
Yes! So thankful for good friends!