Here lies an old Catholic church in Amish Country, where the graves are written in French, lined up around a ravaged Christ taller than the church next door. A cluster of bonnets and straw hats bob up and down as their owners cut through iron crosses, lugging dress hems and lunch pails from the school in the woods. My sister brushes her hands over Jesus' marble feet. "Imagine living in Cal-mooch," she says. My eyes skim the valley until it gives way to stacked farmsteads, denim dancing on clotheslines, and neat rows of trees. "It'd be too quiet," I decide.
Cailin Goodrich is an education major living in Amish Country, Ohio. She fell in love with its local history and with appreciating defunct communities and their histories.