It was with hesitant hands that we knocked gently on neighbor Jim's door. We didn't know if he would help us or not, and it was sure going to surprise him.
Somehow we had no concern about the what if's, we just knew that we wanted to end the legalistic life we were living. Jim answered the door while he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he definitely looked surprised, but didn't hesitate to help us. We waited until daylight, then he took us to where Isaac was working. By this time the Amish community was bustling with buggies and the news of our leaving. (we had left a note) This meant we had to duck down whenever we passed a buggy. We passed one where I sat back up too quickly and they could only see this Amish girl in a head covering sitting next to Jim in his truck. Rumors were quickly spread about me running off with an old man, and sweet Jim got a black mark from my parents.
The next two weeks people helped us in any way they could. We went shopping for clothes. I had no idea what size I wore, but I picked out a pair of skinny jeans and a T shirt, I put them on and nearly fell over when I saw the transformation in the mirror. However, it wasn't long until I had retired the jeans and T shirt, and went to short shorts and belly shirts.😜 I also found a job sitting with an old lady that was bound to her wheelchair, my days passed slowly, and I started feeling more confused than ever.
Isaac quickly got his drivers license and bought a car, it was fire engine red , and we thought the world was ours. We quickly learned that getting an apartment wasn't as easy as it looked. No one wanted to rent to a couple runaways that had no references. One day as we were driving around I remembered my moms friend Peggy Sue, I had been to her house once and thought I could find where she lives. We found her, and she welcomed us in for a visit, as we talked about our search for and apartment, she said "why don't you kids just stay here with me?" Well, that was the best thing anyone had said to us in the last 3 weeks! She had a couple extra bedrooms and she felt lonely there by herself. (Today we call her Mammaw Sue, and she has adopted our kids as her own grandchildren)
Somewhere in this time I started missing my family so bad that I physically hurt. Isaac was always there, telling me it was ok if I wanted to go home, he'd take me. We did go home to visit, about 2 weeks after we left, I remember wearing a floral knee length dress as I walked to the porch where my mom was sitting with several of my married sisters, as I walked up to her I could hear the sobbing, I felt bad for her and reach out to give her a hug, but when I did so, she shielded herself with her hands and let out a loud miserable cry, she sort of pushed me away and told me to get dressed in some decent clothes, and put a covering on my head. I went and got dressed, and we visited for a while. That moment when my mom let out the loud miserable cry, was the moment I felt rejected and vowed never to go back. That vow, however did not keep me from wanting my old life back.
Preachers came early one morning at the crack of dawn in their buggy to ask us if we would give them permission to excommunicate us. We didn't, so that meant they had to vote with the church and go from there. A couple Sunday's later we were out driving in Amish country when we passed the place where they had held church services that day, and one of the preachers came running and waving his arms to stop us, he wanted to tell us that it was voted to put us in the ban. Guess that fire engine red car was already marked and he knew it was us. Amish people keep track of a lot of things. 😉
