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what is now EMU’s Washington Communi- Bankruptcy debts paid ty Scholars’ Center) and with the Lancaster The bankruptcy judge allowed the Goods to Intelligencer Journal. She also worked for the reorganize their debts and to file a 10-year U.S. Postal Service in its intellectual proper- plan to re-emerge in good business health. ties legal department. Full payment of debts was not required Rebecca followed her childhood dream under this court plan, but the Goods have by teaching sixth grade language arts at chosen to make good on all of their debts, Thomas Harrison Middle School in Harrepaying them a bonus of at least 25% and risonburg, Va., for seven years. She always sometimes as much as 50%, says Merle. made time to recount her childhood experi“Now that we’ve paid everything back, and ences on Amish farms and to serve homemore, we’ve gone from being dogs to being made shoofly pie to her students. heroes,” he says. “But we’re no different now Though obviously pleased that their than we were then. We just have more scars daughters are working in the family busion us.” He pauses. “And so do many other ness, Phyllis stresses that the future is open: people. We must always remember that it “Kate and Rebecca aren’t obligated to be here. was our failure that caused the crisis.” I hope they continue to feel that they have Given that the Goods feel that most of a choice. But they are picking up significant the “unnecessary” hurts involved fellow responsibilities, which may free Merle and Mennonites, did they ever consider leaving me to work on other projects in the future.” the Mennonite church? The business ventures of Phyllis and “Yes,” says Merle. “But in the end we Merle hit rough waters in the mid-1990s. In said, ‘Where would we go? What commu1996 they filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. nity would be better?’ I have known many When asked about this period, Merle’s face people who are ‘ex’s’ – they keep living in loses its animation and his words seem more argument against what they left. I would labored. But he responds with his usual prefer to keep learning from working a step frankness. outside the church while in full embrace of “It was a terrible time,” he says. “The it.” Another pause, and then... “I’ve found [local] newspaper did a front-page exposé that God’s grace comes from the most unexon us. Rebecca was a junior in high school. pected places.” We were viewed as dogs. There was a lot of Merle notes that he likes having businessgossip about our marriage that I’m not goes that do not operate officially under the ing to address. We were told that God was church’s umbrella. He has spent much of his punishing us. life challenging his Anabaptist community – Choosing emu “I understand that many were investors and his family of origin, for that matter – to The Goods say they put no pressure on their afraid of losing their money, but people broaden their horizons. It is easier to do that daughters to attend EMU – and their girls were mean in unnecessary ways that really from the outer edge. confirm this. Says Kate: “I wanted to attend hurt. Sometimes it seemed that the people With their businesses thriving again, a small liberal arts school – I thought about we could trust could be counted on our Merle and Phyllis have resumed being major Franklin & Marshall – but I wanted to fingers.” supporters of causes close to their hearts. In continue having the Mennonite experience.” Eventually, says Merle, some wise elders addition to being stalwarts at their church, Both she and her sister graduated from of the Mennonite church stepped in and they devote five to 10 hours a week as volLancaster Mennonite High School, as did quietly said, in essence, “Enough bashing unteers for Mennonite World Conference, their parents. of the Goods – destroying them serves no assisting with communications and finances. Rebecca chuckles at her reason for choospurpose.” One was a church bishop who They also give significant sums of money to ing EMU: “I thought I would find a Menconfessed to the Goods that he himself had many organizations, including EMU. nonite husband and then go on to a ‘good’ lost his family’s farm. “Phyllis and I have always had the idea of school.” She did find her husband at EMU, “They built a firewall for us,” says Merle. ‘benevolent capitalism,’” explains Merle. It is but he wasn’t Mennonite. And she ended up “They understood that we were key to getgreat – essential, actually – to have a profitdeciding that EMU was giving her a “fabuting people’s money back.” able business, he says, but those businesses lous education,” so she stayed put. Other support came from seemingly sucdo need outside folks to monitor them; Both daughters developed identities discessful individuals in the non-Mennonite they do need to be held accountable to the tinctly different from their parents as young business community, who told the Goods church and larger society, as the Goods have adults and for a few years after college. that “anybody is lying if they assert that they tried to model. Jumping from the EMU student newspaper, are more than one business quarter away — BPL the WeatherVane, Kate had journalism stints from potentially being in trouble.” as a reporter for Pacifica Radio (while at When Rebecca was 16, she, Kate and her mother wrote a book together, Amish Cooking for Kids. The book was inspired, in part, by the experiences Rebecca and Kate had as preschool and elementary-age children when they spent many afternoons and summer holidays in the care of several Amish families. The girls were immersed in the families’ activities of farm work and meal preparation, including the marathons of cooking leading up to a wedding or funeral. Rebecca sees her interest in healthy eating and in education coming together in the plans for a cooking store a half-block away from their Old Country Store in Intercourse. Merle says his daughters’ journeys back to their roots have been a “total surprise,” though the family has always been close. When the girls were infants, “I asked a lot of fathers what they regretted about their lives, and most of them said, ‘I wish I had spent more time at home when my children were younger.’ So I tried not to make that mistake.” Phyllis only worked part-time when the girls were young. She cherished the three hours of uninterrupted reading time set aside for her each Saturday morning, courtesy of Merle. He occupied their daughters while she secluded herself on the top floor of their three-story rowhouse to read whatever her heart desired.
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