Anna Resurget

Anna had not infrequently spoken of death.  In fact, it was but a few days before that Anna was upset about something at home and told her mother that she would rather die and go be with Jesus.  Just two nights before her death we had a guest for dinner.  In the course of conversation, the subject of the children’s savings came up.  Out of the blue, Anna said, “What will happen if I die?  I don’t have a will.”  Our guest, a pastor, said, “You can make a will.  All you have to do is write it down on a piece of paper.”  Nothing more was said, but I would not be surprised if we found a brief will among Anna’s things.

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Anna taught herself to read when she was about three years old.  It sounds strange to say it, but I know of no other way to explain her early reading.  Yes, we read many, many books together.  Yes, we gave her ample opportunity to explore books on her own.  Yes, we answered her questions about books and words.  But we never set out to teach Samuel and her to read by themselves at such an early age.  Yet I can still remember the scene when I was reading a book to the two children.  Anna stopped me suddenly and pointing to the right side of the book, where we had not yet read, she read out loud a complete sentence.

I believe Anna possessed some native attributes that helped her to read.  She was very bright.  She loved to organize things and work puzzles.  I believe that when we read to the children, Anna figured out early on that the funny scratching marks on the paper—the letters and words on the page—seemed to have a relationship to the words in the story being read to her.  For her it became a code to be cracked.

I didn’t notice at first, or at least I did not think it important, when Anna would stop us in a story and ask, “Daddy, where is that word?” Read the rest of this entry »