Hello, my name is Grace, I am 14 years old, I was born in Clermont, France on July 26, 1903.
I am going to write this, my story down before the end...
On July 26, 1914, was my birthday and I turned 11. As I blew out my candles I wished for a stuffed teddy bear. Alice, my best friend, got one last week for her birthday and I wanted one too. Instead of a fluffy bear, I received a letter telling my 3 older brothers, Harold, Fred, And Arthur, that they had been drafted for the war against Germany. What a lovely gift! My father was already a general in the military so it was no question that he was leaving too. That left me, my mother, my baby brother, and baby sister. (Thomas & Dorothy are both 2 years old.) My mother started to work in a factory while I had to stay home and take care of my siblings.
It was now sometime in November I haven't heard from my brothers in a couple of weeks. All of a sudden a man came knocking at the door. I answered it and he asked if my mother was home.
I answered, "No, she's at work."
"Interesting. Why did she leave you at home?"
"I have to take care of my siblings." Just as the words slip out of my mouth I hear a crash from the kitchen. "Hold on a second, ok?" I rushed into the kitchen to see a chair on its side and Thomas standing there. I yell at him and put him in time out and returned to the door.
"Everything all right?"
"Yes just peachy!" I say sarcastically.
"Ok good. Do you or your mother have any medical experience?"
"Why do you ask? Are you injured?"
"No, no. I'm not hurt, I'm looking for nurses to go to war and help the wounded."
I was shocked. Was this man seriously asking women to go to the battlefield? I guess he could tell how shocked I was because he asked.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yes, everything is fine! I have medical experience as, well, slightly. I know first aid and how to deal with some injuries, but nothing surgical."
"Perfect, I'll talk to you later." He handed me his business card which I accepted quickly and closed the door.
By December my mother agreed to let me enter the war as a nurse and I left Clermont and was stationed in Belfort, which was quite close to the German border. I assisted with many patients, many of them looked so young. How could these boys even be 16? I never thought a boy could be excited to go to war. Or lie about their age to be able to fight they clearly don't understand what actually happens in a war.
Just before Christmas my mother sent me a letter informing me that my father and my brother Harold had been killed in the field. I was so upset. Fred was excused from the service so he could go home and help Mom with Thomas and Dorothy. But Arthur and I were told we had to stay. They didn't even let us go home for the funeral.
It was now January. The use of prosthetics was now in the field and the fact that the doctors just removed limbs and replaced them with fake ones was so strange to me. I never really wrapped my head around it. Mom always said I think about things too deeply and I guess that was true.
One night I was in post-op for my shift, when one of the patients all of a sudden started screaming. He frightened me, and I almost screamed but I contained myself. I put my hand over his mouth to stop the noise. I didn't need all of the other patients waking up. After he calmed down I sat him up and helped him with his prosthetic. His name was Levi he looked to be the same age as me but that would be impossible his records say he's 16 but it wouldn't be the first time someone lied. I had overheard Dr. Martin telling him that he was going home to America. But instead of being excited he was... upset? He lost his arm and he doesn't want to go home? What?? Americans are so peculiar.
