On Saturday, Jacob came over to the Lapp home. “Gut morning, Missus Lapp. I made arrangements with Emma to go see someone she wants to discuss her health issues with. If your husband could come out, we’ll help her down the stairs and into my buggy.”
“She can manage the stairs, but we hadn’t thought about—”
“I did. I have a set of steps my dat had put away in the barn. They’re sturdy, so Emma can use them to get into my buggy.”
“Oh! Would you like some coffee?”
“Nee, I’m gut.”
“Let me get Emma, then.”
Emma was ready for Jacob’s visit. Reaching over, she positioned both crutches in one hand and, bracing her hand on the table, she stood. Balancing herself with one hip against the table, she positioned the crutches and carefully took off. “Jacob, how will I get into your buggy?”
“I have a step stool. Your dat and I will stand close by to make sure you get into my buggy okay.”
“Then, let’s go.” Emma was nervous at the thought of navigating the stairs. She gave one crutch to Jacob, who ran down the stairs and stood it against the banister. Again, she braced one hand on the banister and, leaning over, she moved her crutch to the next step.
Slowly and, with lots of encouragement, she made it down to terra firma. “Whew. Thank Gott!” She slowly moved toward the buggy, aware that the grass hid invisible holes in the ground. Seeing the step stool, she gave her crutch to her dat, who leaned it against the buggy.
Jacob and John placed their hands on Emma’s shoulders and guided her as she moved up with their assistance and the help of one crutch. She paused at the top of the stool’s steps, wavering. “Oh, boy.”
“Jacob, you go get in the buggy and Ann can help me support Emma. Emma, hold onto the doorframe and the back of the seat and pull yourself in. Jacob will make sure you don’t fall.”
It took some effort, but Emma was finally sitting, without having fallen. “Whew! This alone helps me lose weight! My heart is hammering.” She giggled nervously.
“Then I’ll gladly come over and help you practice your therapy exercises.” Jacob’s grin was slow as he looked at Emma.
“Ja. I’m getting stronger, so I think I can do it. Denki!”
The couple was quiet as the horses trotted down the road. “Jacob, did you bring those books?”
“Ja, I have them in the back seat. I want us to be able to show the bishop what the surgery involves. . . “
“And my task will be to show him that it’s for health reasons only, not vanity or pride.” Emma exhaled nervously.
***
Emma smiled nervously at the bishop after sitting down.
“Coffee? Cookies?”
“I’ll take some coffee,” Emma resisted the pull of the sweets.
“Coffee, as well. No cookies for me, denki.” Jacob didn’t want to put any temptation in Emma’s way.
“Well, I know we encourage our couples to date without calling a lot of attention to themselves. If this is why you’re here, you’re probably the most successful at keeping a relationship secret.” Bishop Zook was honestly confused about the reason for Emma and Jacob’s visit.
“Bishop, you heard about my accident, right?” At the bishop’s nod, Emma licked her dry lips. “I didn’t see a gopher hole in my parents’ yard. Because of my weight and where I carry it, I put my foot into the hole and fell. Bishop, my doctors have been after me for years to lose my extra weight. I’m pre-diabetic, I have asthma and my knees bother me. I just had knee surgery after tearing this knee apart in my accident. I’ve tried to lose weight by eating healthy. But, until recently, I didn’t have family support. Now, I have nearly one hundred percent support from everyone except my older sister, Barbara. I won’t go into everything, but she is actively sabotaging my efforts. So, that means that my only option is weight loss surgery.”
“Surgery? I’ve heard about it in town, and I’ve seen television shows. Don’t people usually get surgery only to lose weight for appearance’s sake?”
“Nee, bishop. People who, like Emma, are obese are the best candidates for weight loss surgery,” Jacob said.
Emma leaned forward. “Bishop Zook, my only motivation for considering weight loss surgery is so I can lose all of this excess weight”—she slapped her abdomen—“and get healthy again.”
“If I and the elders give you the go-ahead, will you maintain your weight loss after you’ve lost your weight? You won’t fall back into old, unhealthy eating habits? Because, to be honest, your whole family—”
“Could stand to lose weight. Ja, Bishop, I will maintain it. I don’t want to be diabetic or struggle to breathe after walking even a quarter of a mile. I want to be able to walk and stand all day long without my knees throbbing at the end of the day. I want... I want to be able to...” Emma’s voice wavered and cracked as she struggled with her tears. “To put my clothes on and pin them without it being a ten- or fifteen-minute struggle.”
“Okay. And your sister, Barbara? How will you deal with her sabotage?”
Emma had thought long and hard about this. “With honesty. Sometime before I have the surgery, if you and the elders approve of it, I will have an honest discussion with her. I don’t know why she is so afraid of my losing weight. I don’t know how much I’ll find out. But I want to get her support—or at least a promise that she won’t try to stop me from getting healthy.”
Bishop Zook was skilled in detecting when people were lying or being truthful. He knew that Emma was being honest. “Okay. You’re being honest and I appreciate that. Jacob, please write down what these weight loss surgeries are, because I’m sure at least one elder will ask. I’ll set up a meeting with them for next week. Emma, you talk to your parents and tell them just like you told me. They love all of you and want only the best for you. And, ja, you will have to have that talk with your sister. If you would like, I can help you out with that.”
Emma gasped. “Would you? Ja, please! I want to talk to my parents and, if you say I can go ahead with this, I’ll get her to agree to speak with you.”
***
The bishop came to the Lapp home the next Monday after supper. “Miss Emma, are your parents available?”
Ann looked at Emma in confusion. “I am. John is in the barn. I can get him.”
“Ja, denki. I would like to speak with all of you.”
Feeling apprehensive, Ann hurried to the barn. By the time she and John came back inside, she was puffing. “Let’s sit in the kitchen.” She offered coffee to everyone. “Shoofly pie?”
“Coffee for me, Mam. No pie, denki.”
Ann had expected this, so she pulled out only three plates and four cups. “Emma is working hard to lose her excess weight. After her accident, her doctors made it known she had no choice.”
“Ja, that’s what I want to discuss with you. Denki.” Tim Zook took a long sip of the hot, dark brew. “She and her young man, Jacob King, came to see me on Saturday morning. She is committed to losing her extra weight. But given some factors here, she has decided that weight-loss surgery is her only option.”
“Surgery! Nee!” This was John. “Emma, you can lose the weight by choosing the healthy foods.”
“Dat, I’ve tried to do that for years. I would lose twenty, maybe thirty pounds, then gain them back with more to follow. I’m getting sicker and sicker. I need to get rid of this weight so I don’t end up with an illness that’ll kill me.”
“But, Emma, I’m changing how I cook! How can that not be enough?” Ann was confused and more than a little hurt.
“Mam, it’s not you. You and Dat understand. My brothers and sisters understand. All except Barbara—for some reason, she resists the reality of my situation. Remember how she acted when Missus King made the roast and showed us about turkey bacon?”
Ann remembered. Her daughter’s attitude had been confusing and embarrassing. Standing, she walked to the kitchen window and looked outside. She needed the peace that the scene outdoors could give her. “Okay. I understand. How do we know that this is only for health and not pride?”
Emma had expected this. “Ja, Mam, Dat—it’s for health only. You’ve heard what my doctor says. I have to lose the weight.”
“Emma, we need to think about this. We will tell you tomorrow.” John sipped at his coffee. “How does this surgery work?”
Emma wished Jacob could have been there to help her out. Closing her eyes, she struggled to remember. “Jacob picked up some books at the library for me. I’ve read a couple of them. The surgeon goes into my stomach, from what I remember. He does something to make my stomach smaller. After I get home, I have to take vitamins and be careful to eat only what my stomach will hold. I’ll get the books from Jacob so we can talk more about it.”
“Okay. That’s not very much explanation, but I can see that maybe you haven’t read all the books. I will go to the Kings’ home and see if I can get them.” Putting his jacket and black hat on, John left the house.
“Missus Lapp, I was struck by Emma’s honesty on Saturday. She knows she faces a roadblock put up by her sister. She isn’t sure why Barbara is acting as she is, so I have told her that she needs to find out why. Are you able to offer any insight?”
Ann shrugged, completely at a loss. “Nee, I can’t.” She thought for a few minutes. “I thought I knew my kinder better than this. I hate to say this about my daughter, but, even as the oldest sister, she was always smaller than Emma was. Emma, I’m sorry.”
“I understand, Mam. If I can figure things out, it’ll help me when I talk to her. Do you have any idea of why?”
Ann sighed noisily. “Fear. She’s afraid that if you lose all the excess weight, you’ll be prettier than she is.”
Emma’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped in shock. “Mam! That’s pride!”
Ann grimaced in distaste. “Oh, I don’t want to believe it. But after her behavior last week, I have to think that.”
“Mam, if you and Dat try to understand what the surgery means and how it could help me get healthy again, I would be grateful. I don’t care about being pretty or even prettier than Barbara is. I need you and Dat to know that if she is trying to keep me from losing this fat so I can get healthy, I am going to do all I can to stop her. It’s my health she’s messing with, and I don’t appreciate that.”
At this point, John returned. “Jacob followed me. He wants to add his own opinion to our discussion.”
Jacob came in and sat down next to Emma. “Mister and Missus Lapp, I’ve been studying these books, learning what I can about weight loss surgery. While it would seem this is the easiest, ‘most convenient’ way for her to lose the weight, it isn’t. She’ll have to cut way back on how much she eats. She’ll also have to restrict how much fat she eats in one day, or she could get pretty ill. She’ll have to take vitamins to ensure that she gets the right quantities after her surgery. It’s going to require some big changes in her lifestyle.”
As Jacob spoke, John and Ann leafed through the books. As Ann looked at the pictures in the books, her facial reactions displayed her confusion and even distaste. “Do you mean to say the surgeon is going to make her stomach that small? So that she eats only a portion of what she usually eats? How can she live on that?”
“Missus Lapp, women only need about 1,800 calories a day to maintain their weight and stay healthy. For men, that’s a little more—between 2,000 and 2,200 calories a day, depending on activity level and occupation. If a dietician came in and evaluated one day’s worth of the foods you make, I suspect that everyone here takes in significantly more calories.”
Ann wanted to understand. She didn’t take offense at Jacob’s assertion that her cooking was high in calories. Keeping an open mind, she asked him, “Do you mean because of the fats I was using?”
“Ja, exactly. You know, I was telling Emma yesterday that once she has gotten used to the taste of foods prepared with healthy oils, when she tastes foods made with lard or bacon fat, she won’t like them.”
“Mam, I loved the roast with peppers you made the other night. Ja, it didn’t have that full-fat taste, but it did have the flavors of the vegetables, and that was different in a gut way.”
“And it’s a gut way for you to lose weight in a healthy way, right?” At Jacob’s nod, she continued. “You need approval from the elders. If John agrees and the elders give you that permission, I will as well.”
John set his book on the coffee table. Sighing, he nodded. “Ja. You have made a gut case for returning to gut health. I hope we won’t need that surgery!”
Emma grinned, relieved. “Dat, you aren’t as overweight as I am. You’re physically active in the fields all year long. If the elders say yes, I’ll get an appointment with the surgeon and start the process.”
“Have you discussed your sister’s behavior with them?” Bishop Zook asked.
“With Mam, ja.”
“What sister’s behavior? Who? And what has she done?” John was thrown for a loop.
“Dat, Barbara isn’t happy that I’m trying to lose this fat. She wants to see me stay fat and unhealthy. We think it’s because she’s afraid that once I lose the weight, I might be prettier than she is.”
John was resistant. “Nee! She’s supportive!”
“Dat, she isn’t. When Missus King came over this week to help Mam with new recipes for supper and breakfast, Barbara said she didn’t like the new way of cooking. Then, earlier this week, she brought a container of my favorite cookies, knowing I would find it hard to resist.” Emma didn’t want to admit that Jacob had been the one to point out Barbara’s possible motivation. “I...she... Dat, I found it hard to resist her cookies, and Jacob told me that it’s okay to have one or two, as long as I exercise moderation. But, if I am going to get healthy, I have to think of everything.”