A Primary class visited Louis and Achsah Mae Hatch Decker in the l950s. Achsah Mae told them this story:
When I was a little girl,my parents were pioneers and they were settling in a new part of the country (Woodruff). Their house was not finished enough to live in when winter came along, so we had to live in a dugout -- a cave with a board front. The crops had not done well and some of the children had been sick.
We had been saving one nice pumpkin that they were going to have for Thanksgiving. Since we had to eat mostly cornmeal for our main diet, we were really looking forward to Thanksgiving so we could eat some nice pumpkin.
Thanksgiving morning, my mother was busy cooking the pumpkin and Daddy had gone to a nearby ranch to help someone else. Hewas to be home about noon. Mmmm,that pumpkin smelled so good! We could hardly wait until dinner time.
We heard a noise outside and thought it was Father returning home. But no! It was three Indian men! They frightened us terribly because we didn't know if they were friendly or no. But we thought if we acted very brave and tried to be friendly, maybe they wouldn't hurt us.
One of the Indians made signs that they were hungry and wanted to eat some of the pumpkin. So Mother fixed themeach a dish and gave it to them to eat. The Indians really liked it and kept eating until it was all gone! Then they rode away.
You can imagine how we felt seeing all the good pumpkin eaten up when we had looked forwardto it so much, but we were grateful that they hadn't harmed any of us. We kinelt down and thanked Heavenly Father.
When Father got home, we excitedly told him about the Indians. Mother fixed some more corn meal porridge and we ate a very quiet and thoughtful dinner.
That evening much to our surprise, the same three Indians rode up to the door and guess what they had?
They had killed a nice big deer and gave it to our family. Oh, how happy we were! Now we had meat enough to last a long time.
We learned the lesson -- if we are truly willing to help others, we will receive blessing in return.
(taken from a letter from the un-named Primary teacher to J. Smith Decker)
This made my day. One of Achsa’s sons (Carl) is my grandfather. I shared this story with my son tonight about his great, great grandmother. He loved it! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAchesa Mae as I knew her to be, was my grandma and I loved her dearly. When we would go visit her she always had great stories to tell. My father was Carl Hatch Decker and he always said she gathered all her children around her and told them stories and read the Scriptures to them and crossed referenced them explaining and barring her testimony of their truthfulness to them. My father went on to tell his own children stories about his life and the things his mother had taught him. He loved our Savior, Jesus Christ and His father, our Heavenly Father. I grew up knowing that Hod and His Son lived and I also bear my testimony to this fact. I love this woman because of her far reaching influence on many people's lives. Everyone loved her and called her Aunt MAE. Some of my relatives would say Aunt May but my middle name is Mae after her. In those days they did not always spell words the exact same way every time. Love you grandma!!!
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