Letters to Anna
"Thanks a heap for your steamer letter. I surely did appreciate it."
Sara Lackey opened her first letter to Anna Elenbaas with these words.
While Anna was in Winnebago, she met another English teacher named Sara Lackey. The two developed a deep and lasting friendship. When Sara began teaching English at Jonathan Sturges Seminary in Japan, they maintained a correspondence for three years. The majority of the letters take place in the beginning of the Great Depression, but they are joyfully written, oftentimes vulnerable and tinged with homesickness. In many ways these women were adrift in the world, their connection to each other a reminder of a time once shared and a promise of solidarity. The relationship mirrored the experiences of many young women bonding in college – thrust into a new culture, with the responsibility of a new job and a new life, they formed “the intense bonds of a shared identity.” Anna and Sara were able to support one another much like sisters, both in the sorority and familial sense.
None of Anna’s letters to Sara survived, but elements of her life and personality rise up through Sara’s writing. Anna was inquisitive, constantly peppering Sara with questions about the Japanese culture and the mission work that was going on there. The contrasts that arise between the Japanese and Winnebago Missions construct a clearer picture of the women’s relationship and their experience in Nebraska. In her first letter to Anna, Sara writes:
We have a wonderful cook. I know I shall get fat. When I left Winnebago I was 26 pounds underweight but I am gradually getting back to normal. We don't work quite so hard out here. School hours are from 8:15 until 2:30 with an hour at noon. Some days a teacher will have four periods and sometimes not that many. In the afternoon every one takes a siesta, of course. As one acquires the language there is plenty to do in a social way. There are a great many school activities, but you see it isn't like W. in that English isn't used.
Sara’s comparison of the missionary schools is telling. Teaching in Winnebago was grueling work, both mentally and physically. Most interestingly, Sara notes that English was not used during the Japanese school activities. This indicates that while Sara and Anna taught at the Winnebago Mission together, English was the primary language used during school activities. Considering the regulations involved in the education of Native children, it is not surprising that the use of English was required.
In several of her letters, Sara thanks Anna for sending photographs. Anna’s interest in photography did not wane after her college days, and she shared her Winnebago photos with Sara, who in turn showed them to her students. “The Japanese girls are so interested in seeing the Indian pictures,” she wrote. “Some day I want to send you some pictures to show the youngsters." Though Anna did not keep the photographs for her personal collection, she was eager to capture the memories and share them, just as she had in college.
Sara worked with several Hope College graduates over the course of her term, and wrote to Anna inquiring if she had ever known them. True to its tradition of educating women to reform the world, Hope had missionaries as far as Japan. Sara joked with Anna, writing, “Come on over as a short termer. We need a Dutchie here next year!” The emphasis on the connections between the women once again reveals how important it was to have a strong network of support. Sara wrote to several other teachers at Winnebago, and developed close relationships with her fellow teachers in Japan.
Sara’s term in Japan ended in the spring of 1930. “I haven't any very definite plans about next year,” she wrote. “[N]o more than to get home. It seems like a long time since I've seen the folks, and yet it has gone quickly too.” Her journey home would take three months, beginning in Kobe, Japan on July 7th and ending in New York on October 7th. She wished dearly that she could stop in Winnebago on her way, but her itinerary was booked. No record exists of Anna and Sara meeting again; nevertheless, their friendship transcended the boundaries of distance, culturally and physically. Sara shared the deepest concerns of her heart with Anna. From the heartbreak of witnessing an attempted suicide to the uncertainty of a congregation splitting from its pastor, Sara felt secure pouring her life experiences into the letters. Above all else, Anna and Sara were sisters in their faith. The letters overflow with thanksgiving for the missionary work that the women were accomplishing through their teaching, and the words are tinged with hope for the legacy that they would leave behind.