Amish funeral Friday: A sad ritual begins again for Jasper community
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Lynn Brennan
Bob Mattison, captain of the Jasper Ambulance Corps, moves donated water in the Jasper Fire Hall Wednesday afternoon.
By Al Bruce
The Evening Tribune
Posted Jul 28, 2011 @ 02:01 PM
Jasper, N.Y. —
Amish families from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Wisconsin Wednesday began the return trip here for the second time in a week to mourn a sixth local person who died from injuries suffered in a Yates County accident last week.
“Another Friday, another coffin, another funeral,” an Amish community patriarch told this reporter, his voice quivering with the sad news as he stood outside his son’s furniture shop. The reporter then drove a shop cabinet maker to his nearby home so the Amishman could tell his wife about Elva Hershberger, who died late Tuesday afternoon at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
The same cousin’s shop that last week crafted a rough wooden platform and coffin for Melvin M. Hershberger Jr. repeated the process Wednesday for Hershberger’s wife. The couple will be buried side-by-side in a new Amish cemetery next to a field of parched corn under the afternoon shade of a copse of maple trees.
The unadorned cemetery is in keeping with Amish traditions to live simply. Fourteen men similarly dressed in traditional straw hats, dark pants and lighter shirts with rolled-up sleeves took turns attempting to hew her final resting place from the dry stony soil that has seen no rain for almost a month.
This reporter, who was a friend of Elva and Melvin M. Hershberger Jr., hauled to the cemetery the rough pine platform that will support Alva’s coffin.
The cabinetmaker’s father spotted arriving mid-west license plates on vans filled with men and women who wanted to pay their respects again. All except the drivers were dressed in the same tell-tale simple garb as the gravediggers.
While Southern Tier and mid-western Amish began gathering in Jasper again to mourn, non-Amish community leaders discussed the dozens of details necessary to assist grieving families, relatives and friends. Insurance executive Terry L. Lewis and contractor Corey Brewer coordinated preparations for the Friday funeral. Both concurred that New York state troopers, Steuben County deputy sheriffs and fire police from the Jasper Volunteer Fire Department should be prepared and in place by 8 a.m. Friday.
Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Noel Terwilliger and State Trooper Zone Commander Rick Allen and Assistant Zone Commander Rick Oyer said town roads in the Route 36-Highup Road area of Jasper will be closed to normal motor vehicle traffic from 8 a.m. until after the funeral. All attending the Wednesday meeting agreed with the precaution.
The group approved the hour-earlier schedule because of heavy early Jasper traffic last Friday for the funerals of three Amish, including Melvin M. Hershberger Jr., who were among five initially killed in the Yates County accident. “This (effort) will probably be easier than last Friday,” Lewis said while comparing arrangements for the three funerals. “But we need to prepare.”
Details of food preparation for an unknown number of mourners will be discussed with leaders of the Amish community today as how many will attend the funeral becomes more apparent, Lewis said. The Amish patriarch with whom this reporter spent much of Wednesday commented positively about the quantity and quality of food last week.
The group also discussed reopening the Jasper-Troupsburg Junior-Senior High School for the second consecutive weekend as overnight accommodations for those who have traveled great distances to grieve. Volunteers will coordinate with the Red Cross to make available cots and blankets, Lewis said.
The news media staging area will remain the same for the dozens of reporters and cameramen who will probably attend, Lewis said.
Drinking water and ice for people and water for horses will also be provided.
The group continues to seek money to help pay staggering medical bills for the seven hospitalized, including Elva Hershberger, after the accident. Donated checks should be made payable to the Amish Relief Fund and mailed to Community National Bank, P.O. Box 123, Woodhull, N.Y. 14898, Lewis said.
Robert Bullock, a member of the committee and owner of Bullock’s Hardware in Jasper, said the fund has received checks from St. Thomas in the American Virgin Islands as well as Corning. Nobody knew the St. Thomas resident or recognized the man who drove from Corning to deliver a check for the fund to Bullock’s business, he said.
Bullock explained that other neighbors perform tasks that are simple for those with motorized vehicles but difficult for Amish families. “For example,” he said, “Don Whitehead (owner of Don’s Electronics) hauled trash from the Hershbergers to the landfill (after the funeral last Friday). Lots of Jasper neighbors are helping wherever they can,” Bullock said.
A member of the coordinating group mentioned watching Melvin and Alva Hershberger’s 13 children walking out of the family’s white house in a single file to sit under a shade tree while relatives worked and planned around them early Wednesday morning. A paternal uncle told this reporter his preference would be for the children to remain in the family home “but we’ll discuss that after the funeral.”
The children’s paternal grandfather told this reporter “the children already have a home” and “God will tell us how to keep them” in that neat and comfortable house.
A member of the Jasper coordinating group told of a tearful Amishman last Friday who expressed amazement that the community, especially law enforcement officials, worked so hard to help Southern Tier Amish. Amish in his Ohio community have difficulty obtaining local law enforcement cooperation to drive behind funeral corteges of buggies so motorists won’t crash into them, the member told those assembled in the Jasper Masonic lodge.
A man who was among the dozen Amish in Elva Hershberger’s room Wednesday afternoon said Strong Memorial medical staff described the futility of keeping her on life support. Her father had told those staff after the accident that the badly injured woman “is not my daughter” but he was wrong. Elva Hershberger had been on life-saving equipment from within the first half hour she was admitted.
After the equipment was removed, Elva’s breathing seemed almost normal for a few minutes before she struggled for air. After her third gasp within half an hour, she passed away, the man said.
He thanked medical staff who then left the hospital room while a dozen friends and relatives attempted unsuccessfully to be stoic as they said final farewells to the mother of 13 young children.
