Enss, Amy Evelyn Greaves Sudermann (1878-1975)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 27 Nov 1975 p. 11

Birth date: 1878

text of obituary:

MRS. AMY E. ENSS

Some years ago, to one of her children troubled with a problem, she wrote:

Flee like a dove to His sheltering love,

Flee till the strain is o’er.
The return strengthened,
Renewed in faith,

And tackle the work once more.

These lines written by our mother express so well her life’s philosophy: A rooted faith in God’s presence and guidance; an acceptance of adverse situations; inner resources to “press on” in purposeful, creative service. It was this basic God-anchored philosophy that helped her through the many changes of her kaleidoscopic life.

For Amy Evelyn Greaves this life began Jan. 14, 1878 in Sheffield, England as the daughter of Annie and George Turton Greaves. She was one of five children and the first to leave her beloved England. This happened at the turn of the century when her Uncle Johnny took his family to live in Berdjansk, South Russia, in order to build a harvest-machine factory among the Mennonites who were transforming ever more prairie lands into rich producing wheat fields.

Uncle Johnny’s Mary invited our mother to be her maid-of-honor at her wedding in 1898. This led to a romance between the maid-of-honor and the best man, Jasha Sudermann, brother of the groom. It did not seem to matter that one spoke only English and French and the other only German and Russian. Mother did not return to England after the wedding, but herself became a bride in a few months.

Ten happy years followed when the tragic death of her husband brought our mother a difficult period of grief of which she says: “There was desolation in the strange country, among a strange people.” However, God allowed her to have the assurance: “I will send you a friend.”

Two years after this experience she received a call to teach French and art in the men’s School of Commerce in Halbstadt, South Russia. It was here that she found the friend, a student attending the school, Gustav H. Enss, who took into his care not only our mother but four small Sudermanns: George (deceased), Mary (Mrs. Francis Hipple, West Chester, Pa.), Joanna (Mrs. Herman Andres, Newton Kan.) and Jake (Elkhart, Ind.).

Because he wished to continue his education he took our family to Berlin where we enjoyed two happy years. Here Justine (Mrs. Jim Bowyer of Orange, Calif.) and Amy (Mrs. George Preckshot, Colombia, Mo.) were born. Instead of being able to return to our home in Russia, the beginning of World War I took us to England and then as refugees to America where we were welcomed to the home of Uncle Gerhard Wiebe of Beatrice, Neb. and his daughter, now deceased, Mrs. Henry Boehr, mother of Mrs. Malcolm Wenger of Newton. Love surrounded us and a home was established for us.

There followed teaching calls for both our parents: To Bethel College, Hesston College, Goshen College, and Bridgewater College, Virginia. Mother’s field of teaching was art and modern languages, being able to teach also German and Russian which she had mastered quite well in Russia and Germany.

During the early years of teaching in the States, four more daughters joined the family circle. Frieda of Bethesda, Md., Hedwig (Mrs. Earl Stover, Souderton, Pa.), Ruth (Mrs. Ralph Blocksma, Holland, Mich.), and Vera (Mrs. Harold Kemp, Wilmington, Del.).

Mother had many interests but first in her life was the family. We shall remember with pleasure her positive thinking and action. Her sense of humor made it possible for her to see the bright side of things. When resetting her hip some years ago the doctor told her she would be carrying in it a Sheffield steel ball, her remark was, “Then I shall walk, just see.” When in depression years she was told our bill at the grocery was climbing near the hundred mark, she answered, “We will just have to let it climb. To eat well is cheaper than to die.” When in these same depression years the college postponed hiring her for one semester and the family was comforting her with the thought of at last having time for “other things,” she answered on the spot, “I would rather be worn out and darned than put on the shelf and looked at.”

Her last personal wish was that she might be allowed to return to Newton where her teaching in the States began and where she had experienced rich fellowship. It was God’s leading that she could return to make her home at Bethel Home for Aged where she enjoyed the memory of Sister Frieda. Of special interest to her was Hans Bartsch’s “Stilling of the Storm,” remarking how well he had done the waves and the flowing robe. She stopped also to view the large art-glass piece in the hospital lobby and quoted its message: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.”

It was her privilege to enter this rest that same night and to have this last longing of her heart fulfilled after 97 years of eventful, abundant living. – Her Family.