Sylvia's Letter(2012)

Sarah Price

In Amish Circle Letters, follow the journey of a series of letters that pass through the Fisher family. As Amish do not use computers or cell phones to communicate, Amish women will often write circle letters, letters that they send to a list of addresses of people that they would like to include in the correspondence. Since they do not have access to photocopiers, the first person on the list will receive the letter, read it, and respond. That person sends both the first letter and their response to the second name on the list. This continues until the entire package of letters goes full-circle, returning to the original sender.

In Volume 6 of the 10 part series, Sylvia's Letter, Sylvia is headed to Rachel's house for a morning of canning homemade applesauce. Instead, she finds her older sister distraught over an unexpected and frightening telephone message that she retrieved just that morning. Steve takes a big step when he visits a local carriage shop and explores his options for purchasing his own buggy so that he can court Mimi Hostetler without having to borrow a buggy. Meanwhile, Mary Ruth notices a change in Menno's behavior and she begins to hope that, perhaps, he is healing from the death of his wife, Martha. The sooner he heals, the sooner she can return home. Her happiness is short-lived when she stops in at Rachel's house, only to learn disturbing news about her brother-in-law.