Beginning on page 169:
This article about Eli and Blanche Sheetz, on pages 172-173.
LOVE that outlasts the life of the loved may not be so rare as some think who allow their minds to dwell on divorce court stories. Happy wedded lives furnish nothing for the front page to make papers sell, otherwise wretched tales of connubial infelicity would figure smaller in news value than they do.
“Until death do us part” the mutual troths are plighted at the altar, but many a man and many a woman, with regard to the vow. “to love,” extend the pledge beyond the parting. Memo rials and monuments all over the land tell this truth. Of such is the Sheetz mausoleum in Washington.
Years ago in a small Pennsylvania town there bloomed a honeymoon that continued the longest and sweetest of any I have ever known. It was then that Eli Sheetz was married. When the minister administered the vow “Until death do us part,” he sealed the plighted troth that was loyally kept in the sunshine of many happy years, and death itself has not seemed to effect a parting.
When I first knew Mr. and Mrs. Eli Sheetz their union was a companionship ideal, ruling his business and his work. His only thought first and last was his wife. And her gentle and cheery spirit never seemed to have another thought than for others, proving herself a companion and helpmate in the truest and sweetest sense of the word. Mrs. Sheetz was a remarkable woman. How often in life we find wonderful characters in the sequestered beauty of a lovely home! A year ago I met Mr. Sheetz, whose name and fame as the maker of Martha Washington candy were known throughout the country. He has a personality more interesting and charming than many who are more frequently in the public eye. His whole life has been a flood of kindness.
Back of his benign traits visible to outside view, I found there stood a guardian angel in the form of his life partner, who imparted the joy of home, which is ever a wellspring of action. Their mutual fondness began as boy and girl, and when they joined their lives in the sacred bonds it was to make happiness for themselves and others. When Mrs. Sheetz passed away, it did not seem like death, for one could not conceive of such a beautiful life ending. To all who knew husband and wife their devoted conduct, from youthful bloom to silvery hair, was an inspiration.
When they first launched the Martha Washington candy, Mr. Sheetz began his work with the zeal of a crusader, believing he had the right-made and the recognized product. Many times was the warning finger of the bright-faced wife in the window lifted, when he was giving it away, indicating that the limit had been reached, that giving must cease and some gains should be made. The business was just like the home and family spirit.
There was mutual rejoicing over every trophy secured for the great collection of mirrors, violins, and what not that have made the little store on 12th Street in Washington a veritable museum, visited by thousands of sightseers. Eli Sheetz and his wife shared all their joys with others.
In her walks about Washington, Blanche Sheetz had selected a spot, under spreading trees, for her last resting-place. When she passed away, she was borne to Rock Creek Cemetery and laid away in the very spot she had chosen beneath the widespread trees. Here her husband has built a mausoleum of solid granite, as beautiful as any cottage could be made. Shining in the window is a figure of Christ, which is mirrored in doors and floors. Every day Mr. Sheetz visits this little shrine with flowers. Never has been shown more ardent devotion by a bridegroom to his bride.
What an inspiration her life has been! What bridegroom more tender and true to the bride of his youth and the bride of silvered age, the bride for all time, than Eli Sheetz, as “whom God hath joined” no man or time itself has put asunder. The sweet, sacred, eternal vows spoken in that little Pennsylvania village these many years ago with him still remain a sacred tryst.
