things had gone in my absence. They indicated things had gone well. Upon further questioning I learned that the entire time I was gone neither one of them had said one word to each other. I did not grow up in a Mennonite community, and I was gradually beginning to realize what they meant when they referred to Mennonites as the “quiet in the land”!


Not only were they quiet; for the most part they did not listen to the radio, or maintain much connectedness with the outside world in general, citing the Scripture “come out from among them and be ye separate”. It was that same summer when Judith Lehman helped us out for a few weeks.


Judith is the daughter of Calvin and Celia. She was


another farm girl that grew up just across the Sonnenberg Valley from where LeAnna was raised. On this particular afternoon, I was running the spray gun applying the stain to the raw pieces of sugar pine, while Judith was busy wiping the excess stain off the wood to bring out the luster of the grain. I happened to have the radio on to relieve the monotony, when it was announced that Elvis Presley had died. I was shocked and turning to Judith I asked her if she had heard what I just heard? Elvis had died. Her response was “Who’s Elvis?”


LeAnna and I knew very little about running a business in those days. Some would say we haven’t learned much since! She took care of the books while I hand crafted the product. She was always very encouraging and supportive, yet at the same time helped to keep things in perspective. We were so naïve that we weren’t even aware that a company like United Parcel Service would deliver our products once they were produced.


Initially I


would box up all the product and LeAnna would deliver the boxes in our family car while I was out building silos.


We only had one vehicle at the time. Frequently I would need to be at work at four in the morning. LeAnna would get up with me, bundle up Anna in the car, and drive me to work so she would have a vehicle at home.


We didn’t know the difference between an invoice and a statement. One of our customers asked me after he had placed an order whether he would be sent a monthly statement or if we would send out an invoice with each shipment. I had to admit to him that I didn’t know the difference between a statement and an invoice, and asked if he would explain the difference for me! We chuckle to think of it now.


I recall running from the garage into the house one afternoon after I had produced what I thought at the time was my masterpiece, my magnum opus. I said something to LeAnna about how in the world could something this good ever be improved upon? I was so energized about the project I had just completed. She simply nodded her head, said it was nice, and replied that I would find a way to improve it somehow. I recall a few years later seeing one of our pieces very similar to this very piece being sold at a yard sale for


252 pgrahamdunn.com


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