EDR's career and marriage

Career and Marriage

When I was an eight-year-old pupil in Pordenau, my brother David sent me a small parcel. Layer after layer of wrapping ame off until finally a little picture appeared: a shiny, majestic lion and with it a note that Gustav Rempel, a schoolmate, had given it to him.

Some time later, during the summer holidays, this boy came over to our house to deliver a note to my father and talked with my mother. When he left, she said, “What a polite boy he is! But you can see right away that he is an orphan by the jagged tear in his sleeve, which he must have caught somehow.” His big eyes moved Mother’s heart with compassion. He had lost his mother at the age of five.

Some years later my mother, who had been present at the school examinations, observed that it was quite amusing to hear how the adolescent boys’ voices were changing. Gustav, who had once been able to sing so high, sounded like a young rooster with his cracked voice.

Gustav Rempel grew up and was ambitious. Since he was not strong physically, he, like his father, chose the teaching profession. His bearing was courteous and unassuming. His appearance was not German, but rather, as a teacher from Estonia once said, either French or Jewish. That is what she thought.

My older sister, Elisabeth, was married to Gustav Aron Rempel (cousin of Gustav G. Rempel). My father said to me once, “If the other Gustav Rempel should come, you must not refuse him! I like him for you.” He was a young teacher in a neighboring village and not around much. “What a fine young man he is,” the people said, and my girlfriend, his cousin, teased me.

Only in church did I have a chance to see him, and then only if he did not hide behind a pillar. Once our eyes met and I looked into a pair of sparkling blue eyes. But when I looked again, the “other Gustav Rempel” had again disappeared behind the pillar. When he was in his uncle's house and I came to visit his cousin, my girlfriend Liese, he usually showed no interest in us and soon walked away. But I had noticed his very handsome profile and I observed him whenever I could.

Though no one knew about it, I wanted to study rather than marry. But what if he, with his handsome profile and his twinkling eyes, had asked me? However, it took a long, long time until that happened. After all, he, too, wanted to study first. So I learned to wait, for I had admitted to myself that I was waiting for him.

One day, my girlfriend arranged it so that he would escort me home. He was really quite talkative, not as silent as I had thought him to be. When fall came and he had to go back to his school, we were unofficially engaged. At Christmas under the Christmas tree we planned to celebrate our engagement formally and get married in May. I was confused and perplexed that I had agreed to this. We would have to give up our plans to study. The thought of becoming the wife of a teacher with a small salary, as my sister Liese was, scared me. She was loaded down with work, for the stove needed constant tending with straw fuel, the rooms had to be kept clean, and she had a large family to look after. She had to do all kinds of heavy work with her slender hands, that could draw so beautifully. If he had been rich, it would have been different, but neither he nor I were rich.

Shortly before Christmas, my two older brothers asked me why I looked so sad and serious. When they knew about my desire to study, they went to speak to my parents about it. My brother David planned to travel to Switzerland soon to study there, and he wanted to help me do the same.

When Gustav arrived happily, he was first ushered into Father’s study. Father tactfully explained to him my situation. He stayed for the Christmas celebration. I gave him an embroidered Bible verse with the head of Christ on it and a wreath of pressed flowers around it, which we had brought from Sumatra. It was his baptismal verse, “We love because he first loved us.” He went home soon after that, looking very serious. Things had not turned out as he had expected.

A way to study abroad opens up

My brother David, who wanted to become a missionary, traveled to Switzerland to study at the seminary of the Pilgrim mission at St. Chrischona, near Basel. Its director was Heinrich Rappard. His wife was the poet Dora Rappard, a daughter of Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem.

Soon my brother wrote to me that a large women’s hospital was being built in Basel, where there would be an opportunity for me to train as a midwife. I needed at least 300 rubles. A rich girl friend from my school days, who had recently married, obtained enough money for me through contributions from her circle of well-to-do family members. This was presented to me as a gift. She always had a generous heart and followed the example of her mother, Mrs. Maria Kaethler, a well-known benefactor of the poor and sick. I experienced much love from Mrs. Kaethler later, when we were among the employees of her estates at Ebenfeld. Everyone, including the babies, felt her love, especially at Christmas.

Trip to Basel, spring of 1896

My brother-in-law Gustav Aron Rempel, a teacher, wanted to go abroad and he became my escort. Anna Esau from Rosenort also traveled with us. She was going to stay with a family in Stein-am-Rhein, near Basel, to prepare herself for missionary service. Thus, two inexperienced country girls got to see a lot. In Kiev, we saw the famous cathedral with  underground passages. Carrying candles, we followed a tour group, but did not go all the way down. Many pilgrims were standing in front of a door in the church, looking inside, where everything glittered with gold. The Dnieper River flows nearby.

At Maiwa, we crossed the border into Austria. Here there were not steppes, but mountains and valleys and streams and rushing waterfalls. We went through many tunnels. Tyrol was exceptionally mountainous and picturesque. We went through Salzburg and continued on to Vienna where we stopped for a short time.

Our hotel was on Ring Street. We viewed the mausoleum where the nobility lay life-size in marble on top of their caskets. The coffin of the Crown Prince Rudolf was still decorated with wreaths. He was an only son who had taken his own life. In St. Stephen's Cathedral the guide showed us a room where, on Good Friday, the old Emperor Franz Josef washed the feet of old men. That was new to me. We drove to Schoenbrunn to see the emperor’s palace Belvedere. We had to put on felt slippers to go inside the palace. Was that fancy! In the garden were flowers I had never seen before and a conservatory with many palm trees and a fountain. Also there was a zoo and a bird cage the size of a room. How the birds chirped and warbled! In the evening we went to the Ring Theatre, which was a new experience too.

 When we wanted to continue our journey, the maid who had looked after our room, held out her hand to say goodbye. Outside, Anna Esau said that she had scratched her palm so strangely and the same had hap-ened to me. My brother-in-law had to laugh at us because we did not know better. He at least had given her a tip. Since we rode 3rd class, the train was sometimes very full. In Basel we separated. 

So in 1896, I was able to take a five-month midwifery course at the Women’s Hospital in Basel under the direction of Professor Bumm. The practical part of the course was given by head nurse Verene Thomen. I was immediately put under the supervision of an old nurse in a maternity ward with six beds. I was supposed to learn how to clean up, look after the patients, and bathe and care for the babies.

At 5 am, the bell rang to awaken us and at six we had to be on duty. By eight, everything was ready and Director Niebergall did the rounds. At nine he sometimes came with Professor Bumm. From ten to twelve we had classes taught by Professor Bumm. In the evening from five to six, we took instruction from Director Niebergall. I passed the exam and received the top mark together with another woman, a Mrs. Wilde.

In Basel, I saw an automobile for the first time. Only once, for they were rare.

A highlight for me was my two-week stay in the home of Dora Rappard of St. Chrischona. I am still blessed by her daily devotional book called “Lord, Speak to me”. 

I remember my six-week stay in the home of the David Schmildts in Niederroedern, Alsace. They were very kind to me. He was a Mennonite minister and they lived in a big house. Since they had no children, they regularly invited seminary students from St. Chrischona during their holidays. I look forward to seeing them again in Heaven with all the others who have helped me, so to speak, to climb the high mountain that led to my profession. I have been very happy in it, for it satisfied two needs, that of serving my fellow man and serving God at the same time.

A beautiful sight caught me by surprise in Niederroedern one morning: a meadow full of blue autumn crocuses. I saw the Black Forest in the distance to the east and in the west I saw the Vosges Mountains. It was autumn and the woods were not green anymore. I felt lonely.

Yellow leaves rustle in the trees

When evening breezes from the mountains come;

Cold dew descends on the blossoms

When the pale autumn crocus blooms.

I was 23 years old and I felt myself to be like the blooming autumn crocus with much love and longing in my heart for a great love in my life. I came to an important decision and bought material for an engagement dress in the gray-blue color of this simple autumn flower.

Return to Gnadenfeld

Then followed four years in which I could help others as a useful member of society. I even saved money, about 300 rubles in four years. That was to be for my old age. However, the tenth part I gave to God. Later, I inherited 500 rubles and it was put into a bank. When the war broke out in 1914, I lost all my savings.

It gave me great satisfaction to have a profession. Soon other girls were taking nursing in the private hospital in Muntau, founded by a devout man named Wall. Thus there was an opportunity for girls to learn an occupation other than tailoring. In time, there were many nurses.

When I was 27-years-old I got married. I felt a great loneliness and longing for a good friend and life partner, especially after I had observed my sisters with their families. This friend I had known some time already, but he had gone to Switzerland, to St. Chrischona and later to Muristalden near Berne to study for two years to prepare himself for his profession as minister and teacher. However, it was four years before he returned.

Wedding

Sunday, September 24, 1900, was our wedding day. I was not exactly an ecstatic bride, but I saw in Gustav Rempel, my intended, with his blue eyes, wavy hair and noble features, and his handsome profile, the one God had chosen for me and I esteemed him highly.

It was a stormy afternoon and if my veil with the myrtle wreath had not been well fastened, the strong wind would have blown it away. The veil was standing straight up ready to fly away. The people said it signified good luck.

We did have good luck, because two weeks later we were invited to come to Silberfeld, where old Mrs. Kaethler offered us a position. For free housing and 800 rubles a year, my husband was to preach on alternate Sundays on four different neighboring estates where he children lived. Six years later, when we were already living at Ebenfeld, the largest of the four estates, Gustav was also the schoolteacher and was paid a higher salary.