World War II Research and Writing Center

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Journaling to Heal the Past

Journaling has been something I have been doing since I was a little girl. Not consistently though until the last few years. My early journals were typical of a girl moving into puberty, Jr. High and High School, with talk of which boy was the cutest, drama with friends and siblings, and my dreams for the future. In High School they became much more. An outlet to describe frustrations in my family life (typical teenager complaints), a safe place to explore the larger world and my gigantic dreams which were too large and out there for most people in my life. I’m sure most people who knew me then, thought I was crazy for having such big dreams and growing up in such a small town.

After I became an adult, the journals changed again as an even more safe place to talk about my fears, sadness, guilt, shame, mistakes, anger, and dreams. When I had my first child, miscarriages, and later twins, the journals became a place to express all I had before, adding marriage troubles, and my hopes and dreams for my children.

When I moved out in June 2012 to get divorced and start a new life, I had a relatively new and thriving business. The journals became a place to work through all the changes in my life, express my fears in being a single mother and business owner, channeling my relatives and guides as I transitioned into a more authentic version of who I was. They also became a place to create many things for my business, which shifted from genealogy to WWI and WWII research, speaking, and writing.

My journaling has been so intense the last several years, so vulnerable and open, that I have personally changed a great deal, as have those around me. As we heal ourselves, others heal too, even if we are unaware it is happening. I channel the soldiers when they show up asking for help. The research and writing, and even the programs I teach, heal the living and the dead.

The journals that have shown up and gifted to me since December are also full of magic. I ask them before I write in them, what do you want from me? The last journal I filled told me I had to be more open, honest, and vulnerable about everything and share the journal with my fiancé! That was a scary concept because I don’t share my journals. Yet I knew if I could be vulnerable and authentic, and share my writing with him, I would be able to share more of myself with the world when the time was right.

Do you know what happened when he read the journal? We both healed. I didn’t die of fright or shame or guilt over anything I wrote. He didn’t head for the hills and never speak to me again. The entire process allowed me to move into a place I had never been. A very good place.

We are all works in progress. As I shift more each day into a more authentic, aware version of myself, a healer, mother, soon to be wife, daughter, friend, business owner, the people entering my reality is shifting and changing. Clients are showing up asking for military research but also so much more. I’m hearing words and phrases:

I’m looking for answers, closure, peace, healing.

Words they put into their stories when we talk include: answers, closure, peace, healing, shame, guilt, fear, anger, love, trauma, PTSD, inherited trauma, resolution, secrets, pain, and many more.

I’m trying to understand WHO my father really was. Why our relationship was as it was. WHO I am after learning all this.

These secrets were kept for so long. What do I do with them? How do I resolve the past and understand?

Would you please write a summary of my dad’s service to be read at his military funeral?

At least a few of my new clients are journaling about their lives, families, trauma (both their own and inherited), and research on their family members. Some of them use journaling to understand the past to heal it and themselves. Others use it to also record their journey through the research, the questions and answers, and healing, in preparation to write a book or walk in Europe where their soldier walked (and often died.)

When we think of genealogical or military research, we often focus only on the research and adding information to our family tree. Too often we choose not to write anything. It becomes a single short fact in a tree or database.

What would happen if we had a journal dedicated to our research? A safe place to document our progress, questions, answers, hidden family secrets, and all the shame, guilt, anger, hate, and even LOVE that arises throughout the process?

Are you using journaling for your research? How has it helped you? What tips do you have for others who are ready to start this process of research and healing?

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

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Passing Family Values to Our Children & Grandchildren

This week we’ve explored stories, healing, wounds of war, and writing. Today we’d like to explore the values we have learned from our family and how those have shaped who we are and how we raise our children and grandchildren.

A value is defined as a noun in two ways.

  1. The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
  2. A person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life.

Whether we are raising children or teaching them in any capacity, what values are we passing along to them? Are we even discussing values anymore in this world that seems to have gone crazy? How can we use family stories or stories of war to educate and pass along values we feel are important, to our children or students? Are we keeping in mind that our judgment of how important a value is may not be as important to others? Are we free to pass along our experiences and values without forcing others to take them as their truth?

Tell a Story

Tell a story of war. Name some values within the story if possible. Most children are familiar with D-Day. Tell a story about D-Day and discuss the value COURAGE. How do they interpret this value in that story and how can they apply it to their lives? Where have they been courageous?

Tell a family story. Perhaps it is about how a family rebuilt their lives after losing everything in the Depression. Possible values are resilience, strength, and dedication. How do they interpret these values in that story and how can they apply it to their lives? Are there times when they have seen themselves as strong? Dedicated to something (learning a new sport or working hard at school, etc.)? There are so many ways stories can take us to pass along values.

Now switch it around. Tell a story and ask the children to identify values. Or have the children tell you a story a you identify the values.

Help Children Think & Use their Imagination

Rather than telling them what they should take away from the story, ask them to look at a list of values (or discuss specific values), that arose in the story. How do the children interpret the story and values? What do they feel is the most important part of the story? How can they apply it to their lives?

Consider having the children draw or paint a story. How can they apply the values they heard in your story in what they create?

A Story and Value Example

Joseph and Majdalena immigrated to the U.S. in October 1880, unmarried with a baby on the way. Like many other immigrants from Eastern Europe during that time period, Joseph and Majdalena chose to leave to give their family a better life. One filled with peace and opportunity rather than unending war and poverty. They settled in Chicago after their arrival and their first son Joseph was born in March 1881. Joseph and Majdalena had 11 children with 10 surviving into adulthood. They created a life in Chicago in which they bought a house, raised children, saw them all complete school through grade school. Sent four sons to the military in WWI, one, Michael fighting and dying overseas. They left a legacy of strength, resilience, courage, opportunity to grow and change, and many other things to their descendants.

Joseph and Majdalena were my great great grandparents. Having researched their large family and descendants for many years and exploring Michael’s military service, I learned a lot about not only the family but myself. Isn’t it amazing the values and the pain that are transferred through our DNA through the generations? How we can take on both the positive and negative aspects of our families? How we can use the values they transferred to create better lives for ourselves and our children?

Do my boys know these stories? Yes. Have they learned from them? Yes. Will they take the best of what all of us have created and create their own amazing futures? I hope so.

Want to Know More?

Are you interested in learning more about values? Here are a few lists we’ve found helpful and inspiring.

Core Value List by James Clear

Inspirational Values

Over 400 Values listed by Steve Pavlina

Are you writing stories about your family that dig deeper and include values? We’d love to hear about it. Please share with our readers in the comments.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

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How Many Ways Can You Write A Story?

Yesterday we published an article about writing the Stories of the Children and Grandchildren of War. Today we’d like to explore the numerous ways you can write one story.

One thing we tell people when they come to us for research or have questions about military service or family stories is, consider the perspective. Stories told by veterans or heard by family members that get passed down, often resemble little of what originally happened once the story is retold through the generations. Or are they accurate? Based on whose perspective? Is it possible two veterans can tell the same story of battle and those stories conflict with each other? Absolutely! We also have to consider what a person is going through when they tell us a story. Also consider their background and experiences, including all the judgments, conclusions, decision, points of view, perceptions, resistance, and other emotions a person feels. All of these things can shape the kind of story we tell or how we perceive what is being said. Confused? I’ll give you some examples.

Family Story: Joseph and Libbie have three boys between the ages of 12-8. It is 1943 and Joseph, age 37, chooses to enlist in the Navy. He is assigned to the Naval Armed Guard. Joseph serves from late 1943 to July 1945 when he is removed from his ship for medical treatment. Joseph is treated and discharged from the service. He lives at home for a couple of years and then due to his war wounds, spends the rest of his life in the VA Hospital. The family said he wasn’t himself mentally, because of the war.

Approaches to writing this story:

  1. A man of honor enlisting to serve his country. Duty. Sacrifice.
  2. An older man with a wife and three kids at home dealing with the strain of duty to country versus duty to family.
  3. Libbie as a single mom during and after the war.
  4. Joseph’s hardships of early life – mother died early. Dad died early and Joseph married a week later (to take guardianship over his two younger siblings?)
  5. Shame or condition after the war. Shame and guilt felt by Libbie that her husband was gone physically and mentally?
  6. Libbie raising sons without a male role model in the home. What strain did that put on her?
  7. Granddaughter hearing pieces of stories about her grandfather without anyone really telling the truth of what happened. Some stories, as many families find, are still too difficult 50+ years after they happened to discuss. There is a lot of shame, guilt, sadness, and other emotions at play.
  8. Service history – what did Joseph’s military service consist of? What happened on his ships? What happened in the ports? How might have the total of his service affected him?

Shaping the Story Based on Factors the Person Writing it is Experiencing

As we look at the eight examples of how this story could be written, how do we explain the different angles that could be explored based on the writer’s life, perceptions, judgments, experiences, points of view, and everything else that factors into being human?

Writing from the perspective of the granddaughter:

  1. She grew up hearing bits and pieces of stories, but never getting the full truth of circumstances during or after the war, she could assume her grandfather went crazy and her poor grandmother had to pick up all the pieces.
  2. The granddaughter who became a single mom herself, what similarities can be found between her grandmother’s story and life and her own? How can she use this to  see the grandmother and even herself in a new light? Perhaps one that is not so judgmental about whether she is doing a good job or not?
  3. What was her grandfather’s real diagnosis of his war wounds? Is there a way he could have been treated at home and lived a normal life after the war, surrounded by family and friends? How can what is known, heal the family?

Writing from the perspective of any family member:

  1. What shame, guilt, sadness, and other emotions were passed down through the family because the truth was hidden? How do those emotions affect the family today? How can we heal the past and move forward?
  2. What was Joseph’s military service? What did he experience in training, in port, on the ships? Were there any incidents or enemy engagements that would have caused his wounds? How can we explore that in historical context to better understand him and what was happening rather than judge him?
  3. Joseph’s early life had many hardships. His parents were immigrants. He grew up in a larger family without a lot of money. His mother died when he was a teenager leaving him, the oldest, with his father and four younger siblings. His father died when he was a bit older, during the Depression, leaving him responsible for two younger siblings. He married right away and soon after began his own family. How did this affect his life, mental state, Libbie, their children and how much of that strain and stress was passed through the DNA to their grandchildren and great grandchildren?

Writing the stories of war or the stories of our family, are not always easy and straightforward. Often we research our genealogy or the military service of someone and write a short, flat, unemotional biography and move on. What if our family members are calling for us to dig deeper and provide healing for them and us? For the world?

What stops us from digging deeper? Our own pain and memories? Speaking from experience I can say yes, that is part of it. However, when we dig deep and confront the ghosts of the past, great healing and peace can emerge. It isn’t easy or fun, but when done, new life experiences are possible.

Are you digging deeper into your family’s stories? Please share your experiences with our readers.

© World War II Research and Writing Center

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Stories from the Children and Grandchildren of War

Every day we hear about another WWII veteran who has died. Some go silently and almost no one notices. Other more “famous” veterans are given a big fanfare after they depart this world. There is another group of individuals who are aging and passing away each day that no one is talking about.

The children of veterans and soldiers who were Killed In Action.

With those veterans and their children also go their stories.

Last year the World War II Research and Writing Center released a book to help families and researchers, put on paper, the stories they heard or know about WWII. Stories from the World War II Battlefield: Volume 3 Writing the Stories of War.

This book contains organizational tips to help you organize your research and over 500 writing prompts to help you get the stories on paper. There is even a section for the Children and Grandchildren of War, to help you record your stories. Here are a few of the prompts to get you thinking about your stories. Want more, order the book today.

Growing up I heard stories about my Grandma T. being a Rosie the Riveter. I heard about my Grandma Libbie raising three children on her own while my Grandpa Joe was in the Naval Armed Guard. When he returned home, he was changed forever. The entire family’s life changed and that change carried through the generations in our DNA. These are things I think most family historians/genealogists and military researchers do not touch because it will bring up painful memories for someone or cause pain within ourselves. Yet, we must explore these stories so we learn the lessons of the past and create a better future. If you’d like to know more about past life and this life triggers and healing, please visit my website Love Heals Souls, where I’m talking more about family, triggers, past lives, healing, and my journey through all this.

Sample Writing Prompts for Children of War

  1. What lessons (positive and negative) were passed down through the family because of the war?
  1. What habits remained in the family after the war? Which habits were started because of the war or even earlier, during the Great Depression? Consider food storage, recycling, using everything until it had no use for anything.
  1. What kind of fear did you experience during the war?
  1. If you were born prior to the war, how was life different when the soldier was at war?
  1. How did family life change when the soldier returned after the war? Did your parents remain married?

Sample Writing Prompts for Grandchildren of War

  1. What lessons were passed down through the family because of the war?
  1. What habits remained in the family after the war? Which habits were started because of the war or even earlier, during the Great Depression? Consider food storage, recycling, using everything until it had no use for anything.
  1. What stories did you hear about your grandfather or grandmother who served in the war?
    1. What was your perception of that individual?
    2. How did your perception change after you started researching his or her service?

Are you writing the stories of your family and digging deeper than the basic facts? Please share your experiences with our readers.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

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An Inspiring Woman

Today is International Women’s History Day. Who are the women in your family that you are remembering or honoring today? How did those women change your life?

There is one woman who is very special to me and inspired me to continue moving forward in a time of great change and sadness for me. Her name is Virginia, or Ginny. Ginny married my cousin, Flying Tiger Robert Brouk, in November 1942. Three weeks after they married, she watched him die in a plane crash as he trained pilots in Orlando, Florida. After Robert’s funeral, no one in the family knew what happened to her. When I began researching Robert’s story, I posted a message on the Flying Tiger message boards in 1996. In 2005, nine years later, Ginny emailed me. The rest is history as I wrote Robert’s book and then others before my marriage collapsed and I became a single mother.

I visited Ginny for the first time, a few months before I moved and started my new life. We spent only three days together, but we laughed, told stories, and only cried a little. Listening to how she coped with life after Robert’s death and moved forward, rather than giving up, inspired me. I wasn’t planning on giving up but in moments of great change and emotion, a lot of things run through your mind. Ginny gave me strength to move forward with less fear.

In 2013 I started writing my book series, “Stories of the Lost.” I asked Ginny if I could write her story, so it could inspire the world. At first she was hesitant because she told me she didn’t do much. She wasn’t [a man] on the front lines with a gun. I responded that she DID make a difference. Her choice to join the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), like many others during the war, allowed women of future generations, including mine, to have more choices in life than to be housewives, nurses, or teachers, all common life paths in the 1940s for women. She gave women of future generations the choice to join the military and serve their country. Ginny contributed to the war effort just as everyone else did and her service should be remembered.

I also explained what LOST meant in the context of my books. Not that you’ve lost your mind or your car keys, but you lost something important that could not be recovered. She lost her husband after three weeks of marriage. All their dreams of the future were gone. My grandfather came back from the war changed and spent the rest of his life in a VA hospital. He lost seeing his boys grow up. My grandmother, his wife, lost her husband in a sense and became a single mom. My cousins who were in their early 20s and died in the war lost their futures. No love, no college, no adventure.

Two books were written and published by early 2014. Stories of the Lost and The Tiger’s Widow. Stories of the Lost contains four stories of my family members who died in service. Robert’s story is in this book. Ginny’s story continues in The Tiger’s Widow, in which we hear a little of Robert’s story and move through Ginny’s experience. It is a good idea to read Robert’s first so you understand everything that happened.

Ginny’s book, The Tiger’s Widow, begins with the following, which illustrates how souls can help and heal each other. The one thing I never expected when I wrote her story, was to end up as part of the story. You’ll have to buy the book if you want to know what happens.

Five Hearts Joined Together

Love knows no boundaries of time and space or life and death. It exists forever in our hearts as we remember and honor those who have gone before us. Through those memories we pass life lessons on to the next generation. We teach others there is light after darkness, hope after despair, and love is the glue that puts shattered hearts back together. This is a story of five hearts separated by time and space; hearts which would meet in the perfect moment. It is a story about never ending love that lived on even after death.

A famous pilot met a young beauty and the two fell in love, Robert and Ginny. Their love soared with the eagles. Their time together was brief but they lived so fully in love in the moment, it is as if nothing but death could have broken them apart. Then death knocked on their door and a plane fell from the sky in a fiery ball. One heart silenced on earth but lived forever in death. One heart shattered into a million pieces.

A year later on another continent, two brothers fought a war, Harvey and Fred. The boys grew up as orphans and wanted a heart to come home to. Fred flew a bombing mission over Austria and was lost, listed as missing for a year. Harvey feared the worst and waited for word which came a year after Fred went missing. A brother’s love lived on after death.

Less than a year after Fred went missing, Ginny found Harvey. A chance meeting and two hearts became one. Pieces of Ginny’s shattered heart started to glue back together, slowly at first and then more quickly. Harvey’s heart had finally found its home with Ginny. He was no longer an orphan or alone. They found each other during a time of war when the world around them collapsed in chaos. Together they created a new world filled with joy, love, and the memories of those lost before their time.

Almost 65 years later, another heart emerged. A young woman trying to start a new life after her heart was shattered. She and Ginny, now a widow for the second time, connected. Little did they know the impact that meeting would have.

Five hearts separated by time and space that met in perfect time, would change the lives of all they touched. Their love would span decades. Their life lessons would provide hope to others in the future.

Five hearts joined forever.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

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CRASH Airwar Museum Program 25 February 2017

Last Saturday, 25 February 2017, I gave my third WWII program on research and writing at the CRASH Airwar Museum near Amsterdam, Netherlands. We had a bit of a glitch as I brought my brand new laptop and didn’t realize it only had the HDMI port. The museum didn’t have that cord or connection to their beamer. Sometimes technology just doesn’t mesh. We made things work and I spoke for an hour on research and told many stories.

Stories have more impact than screen shots of documents.

Capture people with stories full of emotion and you cannot go wrong.

The room was almost filled and I met a lot of new people. I was also able to speak with some I met on previous engagements at the museum. CRASH is one of my favorite places to speak because the men who run the museum and programs are fantastic. It feels a bit like coming home when I am there. The museum collection is amazing too. If you have not visited the museum, I encourage you to do so.

Sebastiaan Vonk, founder of the Foundation United Adopters American War Graves (Stichting Verenigde Adoptanten Amerikaanse Oorlogsgraven,) attended to sell my book Faces of War to benefit the foundation’s programs.  I signed several books after the program ended and had the opportunity to speak with several people.

Friends old and new at the CRASH Museum.

Several friends attended the program and our plan was to have lunch afterward. I met a couple who adopted a grave at Margraten. This couple planned to meet me at the program because we had been talking already with the family member of the soldier. The stories they told me were incredible and moving. Not enough stories are told or written about what civilians went through during the war in Europe. Not enough stories are passed down so families can heal their wounds of war, which are invisible in many cases, but felt, through the generations.

As we walked out of the museum, two program attendees who I was not previously friends with on Facebook, stopped to ask questions. We invited them to join us for lunch. Our lunch became not just a gathering of old friends but new ones and many stories were shared across the table. It was FANTASTIC!

How does it get any better than doing what you love, teaching, healing souls, and making new friends at the same time? I look forward to visiting my friends and teaching at the CRASH museum in the future.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

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I Hope You Write

I am a writer.

I am a historian.

I am a healer.

I am many other things, which I captured in my numerous journals, pieces of blank paper, the back of military records, post it notes, and documents on my computer, especially over the last four years.

Some of us write because we are in transition in our lives and need help sorting our thoughts and feelings. We write for a place to dump problems. We write to keep track of all we are grateful for. We write ideas for future books. We write when our souls scream out, ‘it is time to heal all this negative stuff so you can be lighter and stand in your true power.’ We write in times of grief. Whatever the reason, many of us write and whether or not we ever show this side of ourselves to anyone else is up to us.

My life made a major transition in June 2012. Not only did I move out with my boys to get a divorce, but I was also on a new, uncharted path with my work. No longer was I only doing genealogy work for clients or teaching how to research. I was writing the stories of war and learning how to do that type of research, sometimes tripping down a path I could only see a few steps in front of me, trusting the universe would take care of me.

The universe DID take care of me. I followed the energy of my business and went where it said to go. I set yearly goals, thinking I wanted to accomplish x, y, and z, only to get to the end of the year to find I reached a handful of goals. Not only did I accomplish those seemingly few things, but I wrote out at least a page or two of things I never expected to learn, do, or create. By 2015 I made shorter goal lists and trusted I’d be where I needed to be with work and let the universe help carve the path I was walking.

My journals are stacked high now and contain happy and sad things, a lot of channeled writing, and many pages of discovery about who I really am, what I want, and where I’m going. My soul kept asking the question this year, when are you going to write YOUR story to share? My response was, ‘what do I really have to say about all that?’ My friend Ginny, who I wrote about in my book The Tiger’s Widow, has said numerous times the last few years, ‘I’m watching you grow, transform, and write your story which needs to be told, but I don’t know the end.’ Ginny and I spent time together for the first time, before my major transition in 2012. She has been a guiding light and inspiration.

Do you know the love story of Ginny and Robert Brouk, my Flying Tiger? Robert Brouk was fighting the Japanese prior to Pearl Harbor, with the American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, in China during 1941-1942. Robert returned to Chicago in July 1942 and met Ginny a month later. Late November they married and went to Orlando, FL, where Robert was stationed and training pilots. On December 19, 1942, Ginny watched Robert die in a plane crash when the squadron was returning from Kissimmee to Orlando. She was a widow at 20 after three weeks of marriage. That was just the beginning of their story. You can read Robert’s story in Stories of the Lost and Ginny’s in The Tiger’s Widow.

Robert and Ginny’s story provided light in the darkness and hope when I thought no good future was in store. Tragedy and loss come to us to help us grow stronger and though it may take decades to understand why something happened, sometimes we get answers. With those answers come great healing for all involved. That was what happened for Ginny and I in 2012 and continues today. After Ginny lost her second husband just before we connected in 2005, she began hand writing her life’s story. She did this to heal and not fall into a depression from which she would never recover. We have that in common. We write to save ourselves and heal. She probably didn’t realize when she started writing that some of those pages would help a woman struggling through a major transition, or bring love and hope to the world.

Last night the words demanded I start writing to share my story. Will this story ever see the light of day? Will anyone beside me ever read it? Maybe not. Sometimes no one else needs to read it. The process of writing our story is often more important. It brings insight, growth, healing, and love. I have a feeling that whatever all this soul writing turns out to be, will somehow contribute to the world. I feel there are pieces that will see the light of day and be used in new projects. My pain, joy, struggle, healing, and love will somehow help someone else. We are all connected you know. We may endure our own darkness, struggles, and pain, but none of us is ever really alone.

There is a song called, I Hope You Dance, about a wish that we all dance and enjoy our life. My wish to you is I Hope You Write. Tell your stories even if you are the only one to read them in this life. When you do, your world will shift in amazing ways.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

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War, Love, and Healing

bob-in-uniform-holding-book
Robert Brouk

I’m often asked when I teach, why did I start researching and writing about World War II? My business began 6 1/2 years ago in genealogy. That was my dream and focus. About 20 years ago I started researching my family’s history and my uncle told me about a cousin, Robert Brouk, who was one of the original AVG Flying Tigers. At the time, that meant nothing to me because I didn’t know about the Flying Tigers or much about WWII. Then I started researching……..

Robert flew in the 3rd Squadron with the Flying Tigers and when they were disbanded in July 1942, he returned to Chicago. A month later he met Ginny Scharer and the two fell in love. Robert was ordered to report to Orlando, FL to train pilots in October 1942 and not wanting to be apart from Ginny, he proposed. The two were married late November 1942.

Three weeks later, Ginny watched Robert die in a plane crash in Orlando while training pilots. At 20 years old, she was a widow. No one in the family knew what happened to her after that. Robert’s parents and brother were dead and the story, it seemed, died too. My uncle, in 1996, was retiring from work and decided to investigate Robert’s life. He spent hours searching through old microfilm newspapers in Cicero and Berwyn, IL looking for stories on Robert. He came up with stacks of papers. Robert was Cicero’s Home Town Hero because he had fought the Japanese around the time of Pearl Harbor. His story and appearances in the Chicagoland area were written up in newspapers across Cook County, for months!

For my part, I started investigating the Flying Tigers. I contacted their reunion association and posted a message in 1996 on the Flying Tiger message boards. Nine years later in December 2005, Robert’s widow’s grandson saw my post. Ginny was still alive and had Robert’s AVG war diary, photos of his service, and some things he brought back from Asia.

Ginny and I exchanged many hand written letters and she sent me his war diary. She had also lost her second husband and had been hand writing giant volumes of her family’s history. To this written history she added photos, documents, newspaper clippings, and other items. She sent me copies of the pages that told the love story of her and Bob.

Ginny being inducted into the WAAC. Photo courtesy of Ginny Davis and used in “The Tiger’s Widow”

I sat on Robert’s war diary until 2010 when I started my business and decided, as a bucket list thing, I’d write a book. Robert died so soon after the Tigers were disbanded that he’s barely mentioned in any other books. His memory had to be preserved.

Once I wrote his story, all my other relatives who died in WWI and WWII showed up and said, ‘if you write his story you have to write ours.’ That began the start of my writing career and also my journey into the world of WWII research.

So what happened to Ginny after Robert’s death? A few months later, the minute she turned 21, she joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, which later in 1943 became the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). She ended up overseas in Egypt where she met her second husband Harvey. What a story they have! Harvey had a brother, Fred, who was a co-pilot on a bomber that went down 2 November 1943 in Austria. He now rests in Lorraine Cemetery.

When I wrote Ginny’s story, The Tiger’s Widow, it was meant to be a biography. However, after my editor went through it and returned it, I let the book sit for several months while I finished writing Stories of the Lost. When I returned to Ginny’s book, it took me four days, a box of tissues, and allowing my heart and soul to crack open, heal, and pour love out into the book. I cried most of those four days I edited and rewrote her story. The book didn’t want to be a biography, but a love story, and Fred and I were to be added as characters.

You never know, when you start a new project, book, or genealogy search, exactly where it will lead. I have learned with each new WWII project I start, book I begin to research, program I write, or client I speak with about their family member’s service, there are always lessons to learn. There is often a tremendous amount of love for the soldier. And there are many unanswered questions that the research or project help to answer, which brings immense healing to the client, myself, and all those living or dead attached to what I’m working on.

We are all connected in this universe through love.

I’d like to share with you some of that connection with the first chapter of Ginny’s story.

Five Hearts Joined Together

Love knows no boundaries of time and space or life and death. It exists forever in our hearts as we remember and honor those who have gone before us. Through those memories we pass life lessons on to the next generation. We teach others there is light after darkness, hope after despair, and love is the glue that puts shattered hearts back together. This is a story of five hearts separated by time and space; hearts which would meet in the perfect moment. It is a story about never ending love that lived on even after death.

A famous pilot met a young beauty and the two fell in love, Robert and Ginny. Their love soared with the eagles. Their time together was brief but they lived so fully in love in the moment, it is as if nothing but death could have broken them apart. Then death knocked on their door and a plane fell from the sky in a fiery ball. One heart silenced on earth but lived forever in death. One heart shattered into a million pieces.

A year later on another continent, two brothers fought a war, Harvey and Fred. The boys grew up as orphans and wanted a heart to come home to. Fred flew a bombing mission over Austria and was lost, listed as missing for a year. Harvey feared the worst and waited for word which came a year after Fred went missing. A brother’s love lived on after death.

Less than a year after Fred went missing, Ginny found Harvey. A chance meeting and two hearts became one. Pieces of Ginny’s shattered heart started to glue back together, slowly at first and then more quickly. Harvey’s heart had finally found its home with Ginny. He was no longer an orphan or alone. They found each other during a time of war when the world around them collapsed in chaos. Together they created a new world filled with joy, love, and the memories of those lost before their time.

Almost 65 years later, another heart emerged. A young woman trying to start a new life after her heart was shattered. She and Ginny, now a widow for the second time, connected. Little did they know the impact that meeting would have.

Five hearts separated by time and space that met in perfect time, would change the lives of all they touched. Their love would span decades. Their life lessons would provide hope to others in the future.

Five hearts joined forever.

Have you worked on a project or written something that helped change or heal you or those involved? Our readers would love to hear your stories of War, Love, and Healing.

You can read Bob’s story in Stories of the Lost. You can read Ginny’s story in The Tiger’s Widow.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

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When the Dead Speak – An Unknown Soldier at Margraten

If you have followed my writing on my website, Facebook, or in magazines for at least a year, you know I’m a spiritual person. I feel and sense the dead, walk through a cemetery and hear their cries, feel their anger, sadness, and loneliness, and hear their stories. They communicate through me so I can give them a voice. I often help cross them over into the light. Through the work I do and places I go, I heal them, others, and myself in the process.

Some of my experiences in Europe can be found in last year’s trip articles Traveling In Their Footsteps. Since that time I’ve focused more on WWII education and things in life, than the spiritual side of my work. Recent events have pushed me to take a look at this side of work with fresh eyes and an open heart. The dead have so much to teach us if we allow it.

For almost two months, there is a story that wants to be told, which I have debated telling. I can’t hold it back any longer.

On 30 September 2016, I visited Margraten Cemetery. My fiancé adopted two graves there which we were visiting, and also the grave a friend asked I visit. This grave was for Sgt. Fernando Rangel, 776th Bomber Squadron, 464th Bomb Group (Heavy). He was KIA on 11 December 1944 and buried at Plot P Row 22 Grave 13. This is the last row of the cemetery on the right side if you are standing in front of the chapel looking at the graves.

margraten-unknown-gordonNext to Rangel’s grave at Plot P Row 22 Grave 14 was an Unknown Soldier. My fiancé touched his grave and quickly removed his hand and commented on the energy. I touched his grave and felt extreme sadness, anger, and loneliness. It felt like this soldier had a story that must be told. I stood at the grave with my hand on it for a long time sending him healing and listening to him. After a short time the energy shifted but not enough to make him happy.

Who was possibly in this grave? I had to see what the records said. I went into the office at Margraten and asked for the X-File number of this grave.

Did you know, for every single soldier, sailor, or Marine who was Killed In Action or died during the war, there is an IDPF – Individual Deceased Personnel File. The IDPF lists the name, unit, serial number/service number, and death information for that individual. This file exists even for those who are still considered Missing In Action today.

For the Unknown soldiers who are buried in graves marked Unknown – there is an X-File. An X-File contains the same paperwork in most cases, as the IDPF, except it does not have the soldier’s name, unit, serial number/service number. That was unknown to Graves Registration Service at the time identifications were being made. You can view IDPFs and other records under RESEARCH on this website. There are file examples. Under EDUCATION you will find articles about these records. Under BOOKS you can order a copy of one of my WWII research books to learn even more about IDPFs and death records.

AMBC cemeteries seem hesitant to give out X-file numbers, at least that was the response I got. I was questioned as to why I wanted this information, even though the office staff knew who I was and what I do. Perhaps this is because most people do not understand the records created for Unknowns and it would stir up a lot of discussion and issue with ABMC, DPAA, and other organizations doing MIA research. There was no education about Graves Registration and identification after the war and almost none exists still today to the general public.

I was able to get the X-File number for this Unknown and I did obtain his X-File. I’m still waiting for Ft. Knox to open up their servers so IDPFs can go out again (it’s been down 2 months,) so I can see the IDPF for the soldier that might be in this grave. The X-File pointed much evidence to a man named John W. Gordon. Gordon is listed on the Wall of the Missing at Epinal.

The X-File had information on the death, identification that was attempted, burial, and information from the next of kin, which stated unless a positive identification could be made, the widow and John’s mother, did not want to hear from the military again. Reading this made me understand why John W. Gordon felt so angry and sad. Maybe he could have been identified then, or maybe not. The technology we have today with DNA, did not exist back then. Based on dental records in his file, a positive identification could not be made at that time. Today, maybe one could be made if a case was strong enough for DPAA to disinter the remains and test.

John W. Gordon was KIA 17 Jan 1945. He was part of G Company 157th Infantry Regiment 45th Division. His last residence in the U.S. was Winnetka, IL. I live about 30 minutes away from Winnetka. John received posthumously, a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and CIB. I felt the close connection I have to where he lived was one reason he reached out that day.

I did some research on John W. Gordon and found a FindAGrave entry with his photo. He was a very handsome young man. I also contacted the photo contributor and have learned a lot about John, his life, and the research the family today has done into his service. His family has been in touch with DPAA and submitted DNA.When I emailed the contributor, John’s spirit was with me, guiding me as to what to write, and encouraging me to not let his story die.

I pulled some of his Morning Reports to learn a little about G Company and where he was KIA. I know he was sick a lot in the field hospitals between October and December 1944. According to Morning Reports, the day John and several men in his company went Missing, they were located near Phalsbourg, France. I’m still waiting on his IDPF to see what other information it contains. His OMPF (service file) burned in 1973.

There is still much to learn about John, his life, service, and death. There are lessons to pass along and healing to be done. Once his story is told, maybe he will be at peace. Maybe he knows he can be identified and wants DPAA to look at his case again. Maybe he wants us all to remember those who died during the war, and those who have died since, and know they ALL have stories to tell. It is up to us, the living, to give them a voice so their sacrifice will not be forgotten. The sacrifice of death in war or the sacrifice of leaving their lives to go fight and return.

Are you telling the stories of the dead? Are you passing their lessons on to the next generation? Do you walk into the cemetery and feel their pain, hear their voices, and want to help? Not everyone can sense this, but we can all do the research and write the stories so these men and women will not be forgotten.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

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Turning Points

Last summer after my first trip to Europe I did a lot of stream of consciousness writing. My soul was ready to heal a lot of things, many of which I did not understand. The last few days as I prepared to go back to Bastogne, and then visit my cousin James Privoznik’s grave in Luxembourg, I stumbled upon some writing I did. So much has changed in the last year. A lot has been healed in my soul. Many people have been helped with their World War II soldier research and stories because of the work I’ve done and people I’ve had the honor of connecting with that have so graciously shared their expertise.

The first major Turning Point came in Europe April – May 2015. After that, more Turning Points showed up and big ways. In this moment, I feel another Turning Point is soon to come. Possibly Sunday when I visit my cousin James Privoznik’s grave in Luxembourg Cemetery. James has been with me for the last four years. We have had wonderful adventures together. There have been times I’ve wondered how it is possible to love someone so much I have never met in this life. I wonder what joy, healing, love, happiness, and peace it will bring. I hope some reading this will connect with the words, pain, love, and hope. We are all on this journey together……..this piece was written in June 2015.

I like writing prompts. I found one online written by Charity Hume on Cultural Weekly that started with this. William Styron, an American novelist said, “A novel is a progress toward an event, after which nothing will ever be the same again.” A turning point reverses the previous world, and gives you a whole new identity. It burns up your past in a conflagration of everything you’ve ever known. To go on, you must forget who you were. That’s a turning point. No way back.

james-in-uniformThe same can be said for World War II research. We have a starting point which could be a story, a soldier, a photograph, an artifact, or an event. When we choose to take the journey of that research, we travel a bumpy, twisty, often obstacle ridden road. Along that road we meet many people who enrich our experience and help us continue to move forward. We gather clues as we travel and uncover secrets buried deep in the recesses of the past. Exploring these secrets and revealing them can cause a turning point for many.

The journey we take as we research our soldier can take us to unexpected places where we have to confront our own issues, insecurities, fears, wishes and dreams. We can travel literally and figuratively across oceans and continents as we uncover the story and reveal the truth and lessons which exist.

Traveling across a continent can open new doors to experiences, people, places, and things. It can also dredge up the past and things hidden of which we may not have been aware. It can bring pain and love to the surface. Pain we may not understand. Love which leaves us confused. The journey across land can take us deep within ourselves.

Each person we meet along our journey can impact us in big and small ways. The most important are those that stand with us at a crossroads.

periers-edited-bwWe stood at the crossroads in a sacred place full of love, strength and power. Two hearts joined again in this life which had been separated. In that moment they joined the past with the present. The fear with the love. The desire with hope. The impossible with the possible. Laughter, harmony, peace, joy, and love all mingled together at those crossroads. It was time to make a choice – return to the past or live in the present. Heal the pain and create a new future or remain stuck standing between two worlds across time and space. And all of this was orchestrated by someone long gone but never forgotten. Someone who knew her heart and how to heal her as she had healed him. There was still much to be done and this was only the first step.

At that crossroads no wrong step could be taken. Each path led to greater love, hope, peace, and healing for her and many others. Her heart and soul knew this man standing before her was a key to unlocking something dark hidden deep inside her, even if her head did not yet know. A connection made. Confusion reigned as sparks flew in bright colors around them. A heart that understood how deeply she felt and appreciated that about her. A heart who would take care of her through good and bad. A heart that brought her home to a land where she could make such a difference in her life and others.

dachau-road-bwIt would not be an easy journey and the two may part ways at another crossroads, as often happens when we travel long roads. People greet us for only part of our travels while others stay. Those who stay often have different roles along the route. They provide laughter, a release. Love, acceptance, support, strength. They teach and provide clues for us to follow to piece together the vast puzzle of our journey.

How many Turning Points will be there along this road traveled? We can identify one to begin the travel and a direction to proceed from the crossroads where we first stepped into our power. That was not the only place in which we would step into our power. There would be many more if we paid attention and took the chance. Released the fear and stepping into more of our power, releasing the past and living in the present.

A crossroads came again when she realized what happened to her in a past life. Did she have the strength to deal with the fear, isolation, darkness, panic, and shame? With an idea of what transpired so long ago, she stood between two men in front of two doors, one light and one dark. She stood firm in her power and released past hurts and blocks. Then forgave the one who hurt her. Forgiveness heals us so we can move forward. It doesn’t matter if the person we forgive knows we have done this or not, or accepts our forgiveness. It releases from us the pain, anger, shame, isolation, and a million other feelings, which allows us to move forward in love.

german-cemetery-foy-door-editedThe dark door was closed which was a sign to her that this path was not an option. She was being protected from going so deeply into the darkness. Her choice must be to forgive and move into the light and release the past. What took place in that doorway in the past was closed and sealed. He could no longer hurt her. She was stepping into more of her power and was protected and loved by so many. Taking the man’s hand in front of the open door, they stepped through together into a room that went on forever and was full of light.

In the light she saw thousands of soldiers. And two men who mean the world to her. Joseph and James. Two men, long gone, who have watched over her for years and helped her with decisions, obstacles, and given their unconditional love in times when she really need it. Joseph had fallen back into the shadows months before because she had gained such strength, he wasn’t need as much. His job became one of the watcher to only intervene when necessary. He was happy she finally made a decision. Confused, she wondered which decision? There have been so many since she went to Europe.

James was thrilled to see the man she entered with. Brothers in arms, they fought and died together long ago. James had brought these two together for healing.

Another Turning Point came when she decided to invest in deeper healing and release the past in a larger way. Releasing all judgment, past bonds, hurts, and decisions with those who were not in her highest good. Releasing past bonds to provide a clean slate for this lifetime.

A Turning Point when she realized she was hiding from the world again and needed to rejoin it. She had an important place and work to do. Rejoining would come slowly because her power was building and it was not yet ready to be unleashed upon the world. There was more work to be done inside and for some others before the full strength of her power could be unleashed.

meuse-argonne-cemetery-writing-edited-bwWhat is the next step on her journey? To write the stories that people will remember. To write so people will learn how to capture and share their stories to heal the world. We are all connected in this giant web of life. My story is your story and through sharing, we all grow and heal in love.

A Turning Point is a chance to start over. Redefine ourselves and the world we live in.

Sometimes a Turning Point cannot happen until we release things from our past or we finally meet with a person who can help us find the missing pieces of ourselves to create a Turning Point. We may have things buried so deeply in our subconscious they can only surface with some love and pain caused by another who cares for us in this lifetime. These people do not intend to cause us pain but serve as a catalyst for a series of events which lead us to a new crossroads and enormous realization about something from our past.

These events may come to us in the form of something physical like a photograph that creates an uncomfortable feeling inside us. Spiritually through a message, a voice in our head, a gut feeling, a fleeting memory. Through conversation where the mention of a place can create a reaction of enormous fear and anxiety which is not understood.

How we deal with this realization creates another Turning Point. And when dealt with, we have reached yet another Turning Point and stand at a new crossroads where we gather our power and must make a new decision about which road to travel.

We can reach some of these Turning Points through writing. As we write a story, go through writing prompts, or record our thoughts for the day, themes appear. Ideas and story lines. Moments of happiness and sadness. All of these triggers can point us in a new direction and set up conditions to create a new Turning Point in our lives where we shed the past and embrace the future.

Storytelling is another avenue we may travel which creates Turning Points – either imaginary as part of the story or from our actual experiences. Storytelling allows us to share our life stories and help others realize they are not alone in their feelings or experiences. Stories bind us across this vast web of connectedness through similar experiences and feelings. Stories can join cultures and overcome language barriers. They can answer questions and bring up new ones. Create friendships. Pass along lessons to the next generation.

Research and stories can help us understand why our family did something in the past which never made sense to us. Why a mother would destroy all evidence of her marriage to a man who died in the war so her daughter would never really know him. We deal with grief in different ways, some constructive and some destructive. If we can stop for a minute and consider what we are destroying through our grief and how it will impact the future, would we still destroy it?

If we are able to understand through the historical lens why a generation felt this way and did the things they did to forget, move on, and survive, how would that heal us? Are there still answers to be found to our questions? Yes. Will we have to dig deeply to find them? Yes. Will some of our questions never be answered? Yes.

james-footsteps-woods-kia-edited-bwThere are those we meet on our journey into the mists from the crossroads. Those who give us tremendous healing. Traveling to the place where a loved one was lost forever is a solemn moment. Walking in the woods where James was killed was a moment in time I will never forget. It will stay with me forever. Walking across the spongy ground among the tall, silent trees swaying gently in the breeze under a sad, cloudy sky. Hearing whispers on the wind of thanks for coming to these woods. Whispers which reminded me I have a job to do. A job for which I was chosen. Whispers of appreciation because those who walk among the early morning mists know I will help tell their stories so they will not be forgotten. They have done their job and now it is time for me to continue mine. The writing will not be easy. The stories will be sad but through them we all heal. Letting go of the past does not mean we release all the parts of us that make us special. Letting go does not mean we give up gifts we are given in this lifetime. Letting go allows us to step more fully into our magic and power to create a better world tomorrow.

With Turning Points also comes greater vulnerability which can be extremely frightening. Opening ourselves up to one person at a time or through our stories, the entire world, takes some getting used to. I liken it to standing naked on a stage in front of a large audience.

Soul-wrenching transformation erupts from Turning Points.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

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Genealogy, DNA, Family Trauma – Is It Ours?

Heusden walled village (33)The main focus of my professional life and business of research, speaking, and writing the last few years, has been on teaching people how to navigate World War II records research. At the same time, I was also quietly and personally working through a lot of spiritual things, balancing karma, my life, and releasing things and people from my life that no longer served me. Last fall on my solo trip to Europe, the professional and personal worlds collided as I met in the present time with some of my past. You can read about it in my Traveling in their Footsteps articles.

That experience led to another world opening up, that of the trauma of war. In my personal journal writing and in a couple of articles, I was questioning as the granddaughter of family who went to war, ‘how did that affect my parents lives and my life? What am I carrying around that needs to be healed and released? What was passed down through the family, the DNA, and stories, that affects me today?

Since I started asking those questions, several children of veterans or soldiers who died in the war, have contacted me to share their stories of trauma passed down through the generations.

My business began in genealogy six years ago. There was no World War II research happening. It was strictly genealogy. I had a degree in history and wanted to not only learn who was in my family tree, but also what their lives were like. I wanted to know the stories and better understand why I was here and why I was the person I was. There was a deep unconscious need to understand what my family members experienced in their lives. This led to greater awareness of why my parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, were the way they were. We all have family stories. We all, on some level, have a need to know who we are and where we came from.

Four years ago when I became a single mom, by choice, I began questioning the past, my life, my decisions, and the people in my life, more and more. I saw similarities between my paternal grandmother who essentially became a single mom after World War II and myself. Patterns emerged from stories I’d heard or things I’d observed about my immediate family and I struggled for a long time to have compassion and understanding for all of us, as we lived this life. A friend introduced me to Access Consciousness to help me shift the energy and release the past. When things became too intense by numerous triggers which my soul decided to heal this year, I was referred to ThetaHealing and an incredible woman named Kristen Tenpenny. Kristen has helped shift and heal so many things in my life and to really release the past. I’m still a work in progress, but life is so much better, more balanced, and peaceful since I began working with her early this year.

What’s interesting is the more aware we are, the more serendipity, or coincidences, show up to guide us on our path. I pay attention to the signs, because when I do not, the universe tends to repeat the sign in a stronger, unpleasant way. A few days ago I saw a post for an article on Facebook called, It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are. In that article, the book It Didn’t Start With You was highlighted. I felt drawn to this book after reading the article and ordered it immediately. Yesterday I sat down and read 100 pages and started working through some of the exercises.

The book discusses the constantly changing research of DNA, what we inherit from our parents, what we inherit from our grandparents and all those who came before, and even those connected to our family. In the genealogy community, there are groups who believe we carry trauma and other things through our DNA, from our ancestors, and those who do not. Personally, the science of DNA makes my brain hurt so I have avoided it so far. I’m a historian not a scientist. This book lays things out in terms I can understand and make sense in the bigger genealogical picture.

The author brings genealogy into the mix because to understand some of what we carry around:

  • Those issues we can’t seem to get rid of
  • Chronic diseases we are diagnosed with
  • Those triggers that set us off on panic attacks that make life unbearable
  • and the depression that sets in for no logical reason

Those are just a few things we carry. We need to understand the family stories. This includes those traumatic, shameful, ‘never spoken of’, stories. The author talks about Core Language, or the terms we says to ourselves about our situation, that aren’t necessarily ours. He cites a lot of experiences with clients from the Holocaust who, three generations later, want to be vaporized and die, or carry such guilt about living, even though there is no logical reason in this life to feel those things. The Core Language the clients use help determine where he needed to dig into the family stories and experiences.

Last night I continued reading and working through some of the exercises, to determine my Core Language and issues around one soul who still painfully triggers me. One soul who has forced me to think about whether or not to make certain choices this year. While I’ve done a tremendous amount of healing work around my past lives with this soul, it occurred to me that I might have healed all of my “stuff,” and what is still being triggered doesn’t even belong to me! With some stream of consciousness writing and thinking about family stories, I realized it didn’t. I have been carrying things around my whole life that were not mine, but affected me in countless ways. Through meditation I released these things back to their owners and felt a weight lift off me.

Zaltbommel (54)Is this soul issue healed? Have I done all the work I need to so I can move forward in life in peace and love? I hope so. Time will tell, although I plan to explore this, I hope for the final time, in my next ThetaHealing session.

Our family history, stories, DNA, experiences we have, and the lives we live, can cause strong emotions, we don’t always know how to deal with. Maybe it’s time to dig deeper into the family stories and bring to the light, all that which wasn’t or couldn’t be discussed. Sometimes we have to go deep into the darkness and pain of our history, to let our past and the negative go so we can come into the light.

Have you read this book? Have you experienced what the author discusses, in your family and life? What are your thoughts? I’ll update you on mine when I finish reading it.

© 2016 World War II Research and Writing Center

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WWII Education – The Sound of Silence

FutureLearn has so many interesting classes and yesterday I wrote about World War I: A History in 100 Stories. Today I started another course that runs only two weeks, WWI Heroism: Through Art and Film.

In a module about exploring World War I Art, there are several resource links provided so students can look at various artwork created during and after the war. One link is directed to the British Library and an article called, Why Paint War? British and Belgian Artists in World War I.

As I looked at this article and the other suggested articles along the right side of the page, I found another one called The Silence After The War, by Julian Walker, which talks about why men and women did not talk about the war after their return. This silence accompanied men home from not only World War I but also World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and even more current wars today.

Near the end of this article on silence, there was this paragraph:

“Typical of those who ‘did not speak about the war’ were lapses into silence, the ‘thousand-yard stare’, or ‘a vacant look’, all of them characterised by absence of communication. This absence is seen also in the way the major war memorials communicated the experience of the war: the empty tomb of the Cenotaph, the absent name of the Unknown Warrior, the open space at the centre of the major architectural memorials in France and Belgium, at Vimy, Thiepval and the Menin Gate; and most of all in the annual two minutes’ silence on Armistice Day. The ‘empty space in the centre’ became the defining motif of memorialising the war.”
Having been to these three places mentioned, Vimy, Thiepval, and Menin Gate, I had not stopped to consider the space of silence within each of the memorials. The photos in this article are mine from my trip there last year.
Do you agree with the article about these spaces in memorials? Have you seen others that allow for silence? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Menin Gate. Photo courtesy of author
Menin Gate. Photo courtesy of author
Vimy Ridge. Photo courtesy of the author.
Vimy Ridge. Photo courtesy of the author.
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. Courtesy of author.
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. Courtesy of author.
© 2016 Jennifer Holik

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