A long time ago, just before the Great Depression in 1929, a little girl was born to two school teachers. Anna Daisy came from a Mennonite community in Kansas, and Herman Bennie taught school near the farms of his youth in Oklahoma. Emily sported the family name of Anna as her middle name, shortened to Ann. She was precious to behold. Who is Emily? She’s my mom.
Who is Emily?
With washed-out blonde hair, referred to as a towhead, Emily was determined to be the best at everything. She learned what was right and would shout it to strangers as they walked by her home. Her piano skills improved with her momma’s steady patience. Her singing voice led her to dreams of stardom.
Who is Emily? A writer, painter, teacher, and mother.
She enjoyed the movies of her youth and struggled against the rules of her home. But the God of her parents became her God at a young age. Her walk with God began at age eight and continued until her graduation on April 17, 2025. She wrote snippets of daily devotions for adults and children until her fall in November 2021. She shared her new blog posts with whoever asked, including caretakers and residents from my father’s nursing home (He died in 2018).
Every day was a new opportunity to learn something new, and Emily loved it. At 95, she enjoyed catching up with cousins and their children on Facebook. She laughed about when she dreamed of a beautiful painting with watercolors. Impatient to see the finished project, she didn’t wait for each color to dry and ended up with a lovely brown blob. It was a continual learning lesson, as she asked at the beginning of each new endeavor, ‘How hard can it be?’
Check out Emily’s books below.
Emily was still 95, two months shy of 96. Her last blog post was a redo of a previous post on the song “Goin’ Home;” she titled it “Journey to Heaven.” Wednesday night, she began to write and was about halfway done. Thursday morning, she rose and began her routine: she turned on her computer, started her breakfast stir fry, and, at some point, picked up a red rose from somewhere.
Because her elbow was bruised slightly and nothing broke, we think that as she continued to think of her writing, her heart stopped, and by the time she hit the floor, she was with Jesus. It was the best news for all of us. As she thought of going home, she did. My brother, Tim, arrived later at 7 to check her toes and found her in the kitchen. The fire department put her burning pan on the deck outside. The rose was lying beside her.
My brother Paul and I finished her blog, which I posted on her website along with a link to her obituary. Junior Snippets Volume Three is in editing.
