RSS 2.0 FeedThursday, November 10, 2011, Weekly editorial
Veteran’s Day 2011
Veteran’s Day, celebrated at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, can add the eleventh year, 2011 this year. It is also an anniversary year for World War II, of which we have fewer and fewer veterans among us. This year’s special Veteran’s Day section, coordinated by Laura Schofer, focuses in part on them.
Recently, I was up in the attic and had an “Eureka” moment. That old suitcase now used to hold old papers, when turned on its side, revealed a stamp marking it as the property of “Faith Brewer, American Red Cross,” my mother and former publisher of this newspaper. Obviously, she had used it while serving overseas on the India, Burma front, something I had never noticed before.
My niece, Clara Laursen, spent several months typing up poems my mother wrote in her youth. And my brother, Chris, collected letters she wrote home from the war and articles she placed as part of her job providing coverage of the Red Cross to encourage more donations. These were sent to the national museum at Arlington National Cemetery that chronicles the role played by women in the military.
While overseas in the service, my mother endured many of the conditions the nurses and soldiers did, suffering a life-threatening disease and being nursed back to health with oriental medicine. But she also enjoyed traveling and made lifelong friends.
She felt very lucky to be coming home after the war, and to be an American.
