The Sky Turned Dark

The Sky Turned Dark

by Jackie (Baker) Peterson

The air, unseasonably heavy already at 5am, covered the earth with the weight of a hand sewn quilt; for days it has been oppressively hot and humid for the middle of April. From her narrow bed in the modest upstairs bedroom she shared with her sister, Wilhelmina Schulz stared out the window and watched the sky lighten with the first rays of sunshine peeking through the line of pines and third year lilacs at the edge of the field. Henry and her father would soon start tilling the soil for planting season, that was the benefit to spring arriving so early in the year, the crops would be plentiful when it came time to harvest this fall.

Across the room Louise snored softly; she always slept the hardest in the early morning hours.

We stayed up too late last night, Wilhelmina thought to herself. The eve before my wedding and the last night I would be sleeping in this bedroom across from my sister; we had whispered and laughed like a catty group of coffee-sisters well past what was acceptable, wondering what the future would bring for me as a newly married wife to the handsome farmer next door; the life I was familiar with yesterday was already in motion to change.

Henry was a good man; a hard and dedicated worker, driven by the need to grow food for the people of Rice’s Station. Henry had moved to Minnesota the year before and was already a well-liked and valuable member of the small but growing community. Wilhelmina found herself thinking of his kind eyes and the low vibration of his laugh; she fancied Henry since the very first time their eyes met that sunny afternoon in mid June, when he had casually strolled over to the Schulz farm to introduce himself as their new neighbor, having purchased the land adjacent to their farm. Henry’s friendly smile and relaxed demeanor had put her immediately at ease, and her family welcomed him quite quickly. He proposed at Christmas and they agreed upon a lovely spring ceremony in the garden with close friends and family; it was with unabashed excitement that she thought of what would become of today and every day beyond as Mrs. Henry Freitag.

“Minnie! You are to become a wife today!”…Louise had awoken and was sitting straight up with excitement, her long braid draped over her left shoulder, legs hurriedly kicking away the blankets. She practically jumped from her bed and flew across the room to sit beside me and take my hands in her own.

“I will miss you sleeping on the other side of the room from me. Who will I gossip and laugh with in the middle of the night? Oh, Minnie!”

“My sweet Louise, I will only be across the field and I expect you will be a daily visitor, or at least I hope you will be, my dear sister! Now, we should be getting ready for our day, I will need your help to dress for the occasion, you are the very best at braiding hair. Do you know what style you’re going to do?”

“Oh yes, of course! Mother and I picked the most fragrant pieces of rosemary and lavender from the herb garden and they will look simply lovely tucked into the folds of the loose braid I am going to fashion, with delicate tendrils framing your face. For mother I will do a high updo with curls, she has that tortoiseshell comb and it looks so pretty in her brown hair. I will wear my hair mostly down, with smaller braids wrapped around a rosemary and lavender wreath. I am so excited for today Minnie! Can you smell mother’s cooking?…the ginger drops will be simply divine!”

With only a handful of hours before guests started to arrive, we left the bedroom and went downstairs to ask mother what she needed help with. She assured us that she was fine in the kitchen for now and we should get washed up and dressed, which we ran back upstairs to do. Louise helped me into my best Sunday dress, buttons from my wrists to my elbows, a new white jacket with a ruffled hem and baby blue bows at the back, and a delicate lace collar that mother had sewn on last week; it went high up my neck and I felt like a royal bride, standing tall and regal in front of the mirror in my parent’s bedroom. Louise braided my hair and curled the smaller pieces around my face, mother came in to help add the finishing touches; a lovely comb with mother-of-pearl inlays and a necklace and bracelet set that was a gift passed down from her mother when she had married my father in Prussia.

Louise put her hand to her cheek and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness! It’s like butter upon bacon, Minnie! You are the jammiest bits of jam and Henry is going to be simply lost in all of your loveliness!”

The morning flew by and before anyone could blink it was time for the ceremony. All of our guests arranged themselves in the garden; Reverend Schmidt stood under the oak tree with Henry and my brother Charles, Louise stood on the other side of them, her hands clutched around a small bouquet of flowers wrapped in lace and ribbon, mother and father walked with me to the tree while one of our friends played a cheerful rendition of “Fairy Wedding Waltz” on his violin. I don’t even remember what Reverend Schmidt said during our late morning ceremony, it all went by so fast and Henry was so very handsome in his pressed Sunday suit.  We exchanged our vows, promises to love and cherish one another for the rest of our lives, he slipped a gold band on my ring finger and we shared our first sweet kiss as husband and wife. I could hear mother and Louise tearing up behind me as we walked, arm in arm, up to the house for my mother’s wedding feast.

Father gave a speech once everyone had settled inside the parlor, “Welcome friends and family to the wedded nuptials of our Wilhelmina to her Henry. Today she became a Freitag and we welcomed a new son into our family. Please join us in celebrating their joyous union. My Henrietta has prepared a most robust feast of chicken and venison roasts, accompanied with savory jelly and anchovy eggs. Allow yourself the room for good buns and ginger drops and the iced fruit cake at the dessert table.”

Our guests congratulated us and our neighbor started to play music that made people dance around and laugh. Mother made a simply gorgeous spread of all the most lovely foods and desserts, Henry couldn’t stay away from her ginger drops and I promised myself that I would learn to make them as perfect as she did. The afternoon passed by quickly, filled with happiness and hope for a long life together.

It wasn’t until later that the sky started to darken and the air became heavier than it had been all day. The house grew quite hot with all of the people inside. Reverend Schmidt decided to give a farewell sermon as he was scheduled to leave our parish and move onto his new assignment. The wind had picked up outside and the sky became so black that father and Charles walked around lighting the lamps. During the Reverend’s sermon we could hear the trees swinging around outside and as a few of them broke the loudest thunder filled our ears and all of a sudden the house imploded and the people standing around me were picked up and thrown away. Mother, Father and Charles were gone and I watched as Louise was taken up by the wind and swept away. Henry had been holding my hand and he was torn from my grasp, I lost my footing and was flung from the house. Pain swept thru my body; my arm was cut badly and my face burned as branches whipped across my cheeks. I landed in the garden and looked at where the house had stood just a few moments prior, not one wall remained. I prayed to God that my family and friends were okay and then I closed my eyes and everything went dark.

Minnie woke up in the hospital to the news that she had lost her mother, brother, sister and her husband. In total, fourteen of the people at her wedding had been killed, including the Reverend and his wife. The tornado that wreaked havoc on central Minnesota in the afternoon of April 14, 1886 would go down in history as one of the deadliest. Minnie would pick up the pieces of her life and move on. She married Adolph Schreiber three years later and they ended up having eight children together, but tragedy would find Minnie again in 1897 when Adolph was fixing a chimney and fell to his death. Minnie carried the scars of the 1886 tornado for the rest of her life, she lost the use of her arm in the disaster and her face was marked by deep scars, living the remainder of her life in Bagley, Minnesota where she quietly passed away in 1950. A life truly lived.