funeral | Lovina’s Amish Kitchen

Where should I begin? This week is going much too fast for me.

Friday and Saturday were spent helping out at daughter Elizabeth and Tim’s house. The tent was set up and benches set up under the tent. Friday was Elizabeth’s birthday, although she didn’t take much time to think about it.

Benches set up for Sunday services. After the service, the benches serve as tables for the lunch meal. Photo credit: Grant Beachy/©MennoMedia

Sunday morning brought many visitors from other church districts and communities. The tent was filled to capacity. After the services the benches were used to make five tables to serve the meal. The tablecloths were rolled out on the tables; glasses, coffee cups, and silverware were placed at each setting.

It was Father’s Day, and I hope all fathers out there had a nice day with their family. In honor of Father’s Day, ice cream was served to everyone after the lunch. On the menu for lunch were homemade white and wheat bread, cheese spread, peanut butter spread, ham, pickles, pickled red beets, hot peppers, fresh garden lettuce, strawberry jam, butter cookies, and coffee and iced tea (also made fresh with tea leaves from sister Emma’s garden). Popcorn was served as visiting was done, and the dishes were washed and packed up to put back in the bench wagon for the next service.

Sunday evening we received the sad news that my husband Joe’s Uncle Phillip from Dundee, Ohio, had passed away. Phillip’s death was a shock to all of us. He was never married but left to mourn many siblings and nieces and nephews. Phillip was a brother to Joe’s dad. They were 17 siblings, with Phillip being the sixth one laid to rest. Phillip, age 67, enjoyed spending time with family and friends and fishing trips to Canada. Rest in peace, Uncle Phillip! You will be greatly missed.

We spent several days in the Sugarcreek, Ohio, area and attended the viewing/visitation on Tuesday and the funeral on Wednesday. Joe’s sister Esther and brother Benjamin both live in that area, so we got to visit with them. Also his sister Carol from Tennessee and his sister Loretta from Michigan and their families. And many uncles, aunts, and cousins of Joe’s were there. I met some more of my readers and appreciate the encouragement! We arrived home last night.

This morning seems hard to get started after all the traveling, but I need to make a salad to take to the visitation/viewing of a man from our community. Daughters Elizabeth and Susan are taking a dessert. I will drop the food off on my way to town for son Kevin’s therapy appointment. I won’t be able to stay and help, as we already have plans to help package gifts for the Christmas Behind Bars program.

The wagon loaded with benches for the Sunday service. The wagon travels from home to home as families host Sunday services. Photo Credit: Grant Beachy/©MennoMedia

We will travel to Shipshewana, Indiana, for this with other members from the community that are also volunteering to help. Joe and I, sons Benjamin, 19, and Joseph, 16, and daughter Lovina, 15, will go along to help.

The girls will have granddaughter Abigail here today, which they will enjoy. Daughter Elizabeth is going to a workday at Tim’s sister’s house. Not having to keep an eye on Abigail, 2, will let her get more work done. Abigail is at the age where she can be in one place one minute and in another so fast.

It is another rainy day here in Michigan. We have had so much rain. We saw a lot of flooding while traveling. Makes us appreciate the sunny days so much more. I need to get busy. There’s much to do, and time does not stand still.

I want to wish all of you God’s richest blessings as we travel into the unknown future. As the minister at Uncle Phillip’s funeral reminded us, death is final, and there isn’t any limit to how young our age is when our time here on earth is done. Let us pray for one another and for peace in the world! Take care!

Try this version of rhubarb jam. It has pineapple added to it. Enjoy!

Rhubarb Jam

4 cups chopped rhubarb4 cups sugar
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 (6-ounce) package strawberry-flavored gelatin

Bring rhubarb, sugar, and pineapple to a boil in a saucepan. Boil gently for 12 minutes. Add gelatin and boil for 1 additional minute. Place into sterilized jars and seal.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen is written by Lovina Eicher, Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife, and mother of eight. Her newest cookbook, The Essential Amish Cookbook, is available from the publisher, Herald Press, 800-245-7894. Readers can write to Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply); or email LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org and your message will be passed on to her to read. She does not personally respond to emails.

The month of February is already upon us. This past week went fast and it’s hard to believe its past time to pen this column again.

Saturday we ground all the hamburger from the beef we butchered. We made around two hundred fifty hamburger patties and packaged all the hamburger for the freezer. I will make vegetable soup yet from the meat we cook from the bones. This will wind down all the butchering from the beef. We canned the beef chunks and some hamburger. I like canned hamburger for casseroles. It doesn’t have to be fried before adding it so it saves a step. We also use it to make sloppy joes.

While working on the hamburger we got a call saying that Joe’s Uncle Benji Eicher passed away in Marysville, Indiana.

Sunday we attended church in Charlotte, Michigan, at Mose’s brother Daniel and Marianna’s place. It’s always interesting to visit other communities. We appreciated the hospitality!

We enjoyed visiting with Lydia Coblentz. Her husband Freeman was a cousin to my dad. He passed away twenty years ago. Lydia is almost ninety and has many interesting stories to tell from her youth. One of her granddaughters wrote a book called Seasons about Lydia’s life. I have the book and we all enjoyed reading it—a true story of an Amish girl growing up in hard times.

Monday morning Joe and I and five of our children headed south for Marysville. We arrived in Scottsburg around 12:30 p.m. We got a few motel rooms then went to the visitation which was almost twenty miles from the motel.

When we came back to the motel the children had fun swimming in the motel’s pool. All the motels in Scottsburg were filled with people that were attending the funeral the next day. Some people had to go to other towns further south for a motel.

Marysville is a new Amish community with not too many families there yet. On the day of the funeral there were over one hundred vans there bringing friends and family from all over. The funeral was held in a large pole barn and I’m guessing there were more than one thousand people there. Our sympathy goes to Aunt Margaret and the family. Uncle Benji left to mourn fourteen children, one hundred thirty four grandchildren, and one hundred fifty eight great-grandchildren.

We arrived back home in Michigan around 6:30 Tuesday evening. Daughter Susan, 20, and son Benjamin, 16, kept up with the chores here at home while we were gone.

We had plans to butcher hogs on Saturday but changed our plans due to a funeral of an eighty-eight year old man from this community, Menno Eicher. He is a father-in-law to three of Joe’s sisters. When I was a young girl I was in the same church district as Menno. Menno was a widower for quite a few years.

We plan to attend the funeral on Saturday. With two funerals in the same week my work has been pushed back so I need to get back to chores. We wish God’s blessings to all of you.

Try this potato soup on these cold winter evenings.

Potato Soup

1 pound bacon, fried and chopped
2 celery ribs, diced
1 onion, diced\
6-8 potatoes, peeled and cubed
32 ounces chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste|
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Place bacon in a large kettle. Add celery and onion and cook until softened. (Use bacon grease if desired.) Add potatoes and chicken broth. Bring to a boil then simmer until potatoes are tender. In a small saucepan melt butter, then whisk in flour and brown the mixture stirring constantly for a few minutes. Add heavy cream slowly while whisking constantly. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and continue whisking until mixture thickens. Stir cream mixture into the potato mixture. Gently stir in cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Feeds 12 or more.

Lovina Eicher is an Old Order Amish writer, cook, wife and mother of eight. Formerly writing as The Amish Cook, Eicher inherited that column from her mother, Elizabeth Coblentz, who wrote from 1991 to 2002. Readers can contact Eicher at PO Box 1689, South Holland, IL 60473 (please include a self-addressed stamped envelope for a reply) or at LovinasAmishKitchen@MennoMedia.org.

Lovina’s Amish Kitchen

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God’s blessings as we travel into the unknown future

More than 1000 friends and family gather to mourn passing of Uncle Benji