Review of the book Tender Hands: Ruth's Story of Healing

Book review by Vi Kruckenberg Schielke, Beulah, North Dakota

Vi Kruckenberg Schielke is a life member of Germans from Russia Heritage Society and has served on the GRHS board of directors for nine years in the past and continues to serve on their various committees. She is co-author of the Mercer County Cemetery Index published in 1990. She also is a self-taught family genealogist and has contributed to many published articles and family history books.

Tender Hands is a book of 80 pages covering Ruth Weil Kusler's life of 85 years with testimonials, pictures, family history and some of her healing recipes.

Home healing was a gift from God and all homesteaders used these gifted people. Doctors were not readily available in pioneer days plus were even costly then. The German-Russian settlements all had their home remedies which they used first. This gift of healing was called Brauching. Ruth Weil was instilled with this gift and trained by her mother who in turn was trained by her mother. Thus the training was passed down generation to generation. As were the recipes for the home made remedies made from common herbs, kitchen food supplies and supplies readily available in the pioneer grocery store.

As I grew up with brauching, I first met Ruth Kusler twenty years ago when I took my teenage son to visit for his injured shoulder which he injured while wrestling. Ruth put his shoulder in place with massaging. Ruth was very cautious of taking us on as a client as we were newcomers to this area. Ruth was an outspoken, energetic lady but one who I enjoyed getting to know. Her story needed to be told and shared to preserve the healing gifts of the pioneer days.