Donna Eisenschenk

Dear All,

Our hearts are joined in feeling the loss of Dear Donna, my `Big Sister.´ I will always cherish the wonderful memories I have of her.

I am so grateful to have made the trip for Donna´s 95th birthday a little over a month ago when she was alert and enjoying visiting. However, I have decided not to attend the funeral. Know that at this time of loss, the whole family is in my thoughts and in my heart.

Ten years ago, I wrote her the letter which follows. It reflects just a little of my love and admiration for your mother/grandmother Donna and her life fully lived.

Peace and Love,
Carol

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(Originally written in 2015)

Dear Donna,

When we first met, I was about ten years old. You were about to marry my big brother, Elmer. That was about sixty-five years ago, and Elmer still claims that, though he was young when you married, he had to snatch you up before some other fellow did and boasts of his smarts to have chosen so well. I recall how wonderfully you treated Delores and me, Elmer's adoring but bothersome little sisters, as if you loved having us around and teaching us how the world worked. You became my big sister, Donna.

You included us baking cookies, sewing clothes, planting the garden, and canning and preserving yummy pickles and jams and tomato sauce. You seemed to have every skill needed. You knew how to drive a car, unlike our mother, but also the farm tractor! You had your own family of nine, helped with barn chores, tended chickens, sewed, and mended, planted a huge garden, cooked, baked, washed, and laundered, volunteered at church for weddings and funerals, painted, upholstered, and could be counted on to provide decorated wedding cakes for all. Yet when the day ended, and all was quiet, I can still see you serenely sitting in your rocker with a book.

Goodness knows, you have faced many challenges together over the years, but there just is not anything you can't do, Donna. Whenever I have faced a problem, I want you to know that more times than not, I would think, "What would Donna do?"

Thank you for sharing your good common sense and wisdom with me back then and over these many years. You are an inspiration to look up to, the embodiment of a strong woman, and a moral compass for me.

And I love you most dearly as my sister.

Carol