When the War is Over
He captured her heart
She’s sixteen – and she’s smitten. Never has she seen – nor would she ever see – any man as handsome, as perfect as the young one who came every day to collect the fresh milk from her farm.
Then came the war. As it progressed, she found ways to speak to him, to become real in his mind and thoughts. To be loved in return. Four years later, he was home on leave and they became engaged to be married “as soon as it’s over”.
Driving his low-sided wagon with the skill and panache of a young Apollo, he captured her heart while she was only fifteen.
Early in November of 1918 she became elated as talk spread that the war would end soon.
On the eleventh, the very day of the Armistice, his father came to the farm to tell her that he had been killed five days earlier.
She never married.