All God's Children (45 page)

Following the meeting for worship, Anja and Beth set out the covered dishes of food they had prepared and received from the neighbors. They worked in contented silence in the kitchen, which was almost as small as the galley on Edvard’s fishing boat. The others remained in the sitting room, talking quietly—mostly in Danish.

“You know you could marry properly in the faith,” Anja said as if she were continuing a conversation the two of them had been engaged in as they set out the food. “We could do it here.”

“There is so much we have yet to consider,” Beth replied. “Why add a wedding to the list?”

“Because it would do everyone good to be able to celebrate something normal. Think about it.”

But when Beth mentioned Anja’s idea to Josef, he had concerns. “I would like that as well, but I fear calling undue attention to ourselves and especially to our friends here. The island is occupied after all, and if the Nazis…”

“Josef, what are we to do? Anja is planning to leave for Belgium as soon as possible to search for Daniel. Perhaps we should go with her.”

“And do what?”

“There are still people in desperate need of help—we could join the underground resistance there and continue the work we began in Munich. We could…”

Josef’s eyes widened in surprise. “You would go back to that life? To always living in danger and fear?”

“Danger, yes, but not fear, Josef. Never fear. If we are doing God’s work, then we have nothing to fear.”

“You amaze me.” He held her close and kissed her. “Marry me, Beth,” he whispered before kissing her again.

“We are already married,” she reminded him.

“But Anja is right—that wedding is not the one we want to hold in our memories to share with our children and grandchildren. Let’s let Anja plan a proper wedding for us.”

“I thought you were worried about drawing attention to the others.”

“If they allow us to worship in peace, then surely they will take little note of a simple ceremony.”

Beth felt her heart swell with joy. From the moment Anja had suggested the idea, she had been unable to think of much else. What if…

But her innate caution and concern for the community made her seek out Edvard later that day. The fisherman had delayed his visit to his sister and continued to live on his boat, leaving Josef and Beth the privacy of his cottage. Many aspects of Edvard and his character reminded her of her father, and she had found that spending time with him helped to assuage her homesickness. Also she had another reason for going to visit him that day—she wanted to get word to her parents that she was safe, knowing they must be worried sick by now.

“I can carry a letter for you when I go over to Sweden next week. It’ll be my last run before full winter sets in.”

It was the perfect solution. Because Sweden had maintained its neutrality, her letter had a far better chance of reaching her parents without the blacked out lines of the German censors. “I’ll write the letter tonight,” she promised.

“And as for this other matter, you and your young doctor deserve a wedding you can remember with pleasure. A wedding bound only by the love the two of you share. Let Anja put it together for you.”

“But we don’t want to cause trouble for anyone, and what if—”

Edvard smiled. “The people in this village have handled a lot more than any problems a simple wedding might cause. Besides the war’s turned against Hitler and his gang. Word has it that some of those Nazis stationed here are already beginning to reconsider their futures. I expect we’ll start to see the desertions any time now.” He patted Beth’s head as if she were a little girl. “You go on and plan that wedding.”

“Will you be there?” she asked, feeling suddenly shy with him.

“Would not miss it for the world.”

    CHAPTER 25    

T
his time they took the time they needed to follow the traditions of the Quaker faith. As clerk of the meeting for business, Anja’s grandfather Olaf read aloud the letter that Josef and Beth had given him announcing their wish to be married. Beth and Josef sat quietly among the circle of Friends gathered for the monthly meeting for business.

“He will appoint two or three Friends to form a clearness committee,” Beth explained in a whisper.

“What’s a clearness committee?”

“They will question us and point out potential difficulties we may encounter and then—”

“But we’re already married,” Josef reminded her.

“I know, but it’s part of the tradition.”

Anja and Edvard were appointed, and with a nod from Anja, Edvard stood and addressed everyone there. “Anja and I approve the proposed union and recommend that they be allowed to marry.”

“So much for questions and potential problems,” Josef said with a wry grin.

“Shhh,” Beth whispered.

Olaf turned to the next order of business. “With the approval of the meeting, I would like to appoint my wife, my granddaughter, and myself to serve as the oversight committee.”

Nods all around.

“Another committee? What’s this one for?” Josef whispered.

Beth took hold of his hand hoping to calm him. “They will oversee the arrangements for the wedding—the wedding certificate, the food and place for the reception—everything.”

“Oh.” He was obviously relieved.

“Who will perform the ceremony?” Josef asked later as they walked back to Edvard’s cottage together.

“We will.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Friends refer to it as being married under the care of a Quaker meeting. When the time comes, we will stand before the gathering of friends and members of this meeting and speak our vows.”

“No minister or priest or whatever you call the clergyman?”

“God is our clergy.”

Josef was silent for the rest of the walk to the cottage, and Beth knew that he must be thinking how different this all was to the faith he was raised in with its ritual and robed clergy and ceremonial trappings.

“Would you rather not do this, Josef?” she asked as they stepped inside the cozy cottage and hung up their coats. “I mean we are already man and wife, and there’s no—”

He laid his finger against her lips. “I want very much to do this. I like everything about it, especially the idea that it’s just you and me coming before God to speak our vows. I love you with my entire being, and when I thought I might lose you—that the infection from the bullet…”

“Shhh. I am healed now and getting stronger every day. Why, the walk down to the docks and back up that hill every day has done wonders for me. I hardly limp at all.”

“And I was going to carve you a walking stick for a wedding gift,” he teased. He brushed her golden curls away from her face, and his expression turned serious. “I want so much to make you happy, Beth.”

“Then you have what you want, for I am happier and more content in this place than I could ever have imagined.”

“You must miss your family.”

“Of course I do. But I feel more strongly than anything that God brought us to this place. I want to stay, Josef—for now. I want to stop running and stay here.”

“Then that is what we will do. We’ll find a cottage of our own. Maybe I can practice medicine among the locals.”

“What will I do?”

Josef grinned, and Beth thought he was never more handsome than when his eyes sparkled mischievously and his smile lit up his entire inner being. “You, my love, will be busy raising our children.”

Three days before Christmas Day 1943 Josef and Beth sat side by side next to Anja and her grandparents at the meeting for worship. The members of the meeting were all present. Edvard had even trimmed his scraggly beard for the occasion. After several minutes of silence, Josef took Beth’s hand, and the two stood.

Josef spoke first.

“In the presence of God and this gathering of Friends, I take this my friend Elizabeth Bridgewater to be my wife, promising with divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband so long as we both shall live.”

Beth repeated the same words to Josef, and, still holding hands, they stepped up to a small table and signed the wedding certificate. Once they had again taken their seats, Olaf as clerk of the meeting read the certificate aloud. He sat down, and everyone returned to the silence of worship.

After a while Edvard stood and cleared his throat. “I was sitting here thinking about how these two young people are just at the beginning of their journey while some of the rest of us are coming to the end. May God hold them in the Light as He has blessed those of us gathered here today many times over.”

Around the circle, the worshippers raised their hands in wordless praise and returned to their silence.

Anja’s grandmother was the next to speak. She struggled to stand, her arthritic knees suffering in the damp and cold of the winter day. “These young people have already been tested in ways the rest of us cannot imagine,” she said. “Let us all pray that they continue to find their way—hand in hand—through these difficult times.”

Beth thought about all that she and Josef had faced together. She thought about the day she first met him and how she had looked at him with suspicion because he wore the uniform of a German soldier. How she had prayed that very night for God’s forgiveness that she had judged this man for his outward appearance instead of getting to know the inner man beneath the uniform.

She thought about the train ride with Liesl when Josef had proposed to her, and she understood now that his proposal that night had been every bit as genuine as his love for her was on this day. But again she had doubted. And then she squeezed her eyes closed to hold back tears when she recalled the day she had read her uncle’s note and in that single moment believed that Josef had betrayed them all.

She realized now that God had shown her the way back to Josef and had given her the strength to stand with him in his darkest hours as he faced the judge and the possibility of a death sentence. She took no pride in or credit for her actions that day, but rather saw the events that had led them both to Sobibor as a unique blessing because it had reunited them with Anja and had shown them that in the face of true evil, there were the blessings of friendship and courage and community.

Olaf reached over and shook Edvard’s hand, signaling that the meeting for worship had come to its end. Several of those in attendance stepped up to sign the wedding certificate while Anja and her grandmother set out the refreshments. The room that had been so filled with silence only minutes before was filled with laughter and conversation and good wishes for Josef and Beth. The room and these people felt like family…like home.

Josef held onto her hand as if he intended never to let go of it as they received the congratulations of the others. The language barrier was hardly noticeable, as enough of those present spoke German that they could translate the Danish for the happy couple.

Beth saw Edvard remove an envelope from his pocket, and he smoothed out the wrinkles in it before stepping forward. “This came for you, Josef.”

“It’s addressed to you, Edvard.”

Beth watched as Josef studied the handwriting. “It’s from my father.” His hands were shaking as he opened the envelope. She leaned closer so that they could read the short and simple message together: