The Ticket by Karen Schutte

Author:Karen Schutte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Green Spring Publishing
Published: 2015-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The Middle Years, 1915–18

In 1915, the Kessels had a second daughter, Dorothy; her brothers nicknamed her Dottie. She was a pretty baby girl with brown eyes, light-brown hair, and a fiery temper like her father. A month after Dottie was born Karl made a trip into Lovell for supplies. When the wagon rolled back into the yard at the end of the day, they all went out to meet him, each hoping for some special treat. Karl was in great spirits as he climbed down from the wagon, handing peppermint sticks to each child. He climbed into the back of the wagon where a canvas tarp covered something large. His eyes lit up as he announced, “This is for you, Katja.” With a sudden jerk, he threw the tarp off, exposing a new, black coal-burning cook stove. Katja’s hand flew to her face in amazement.

“Oh, Karl, oh Mein Gott, look at that beautiful stove. Thank you—thank you so much.”

Karl and the older boys disconnected the old black beast and replaced it with the shiny new cook stove. Katja was thrilled to cook their supper on her new stove.

Although Katja had given birth to six children in fifteen years of marriage, Karl still expected his wife to help out in the fields whenever he needed an extra hand, even after what Grandma Bittner had told him. The hard work kept the extra pounds off, but Katja noticed that with each birth, her body was beginning to thicken and sag. She also noticed she became tired easily from tasks that never bothered her before. The backbreaking field and housework, along with numerous pregnancies and miscarriages, were taking both a physical and mental toll on Katja.

Trying her best to cope with her situation in life, she searched for ways to keep from being pregnant. Like many women of her time, Katja heard of a special herbal tea that would bring on bleeding and possibly abort an unwanted pregnancy. But she felt in her heart that doing so would be a sin and something she could never do. She realized she had only one alternative, to nurse her children for two or more years. Katja didn’t understand why this seemed to work as a type of birth control, but it helped to keep the number of her pregnancies down.

June 18, 1915

Our dear Katja,

We hope and pray that this letter finds you safe and well. We are so happy with the good news of the birth of your sixth child, Dorothy, in April. We hope that you are feeling your strength back and the baby is doing well. The Lord is good and has blessed you and Karl with six children; we are so thankful.

Your father and I are grateful you and Karl are not living in this country anymore. So many have died, including several of your cousins. Your cousins Heinrich and Wilhelm were both killed on the western front. Your brother is safe and is coming home to help with the farm.

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