I love walking in the Park. I find each visit is different…and I like that.
Today I stopped near the Grove of Remembrance.
I just stood there. Minutes went by.
I began imagining how it was…back then, 1918. The War going on and it was my brother in a muddy trench taking fire from all sides.Then, I was imagining how it was after the war, and maybe he was badly injured, lying insome hospital—who knows where—scared, in pain, and neither Mom, nor Dad, nor I was there with him. I could see it all so clearly.
I truly appreciate the Memorials in our Park. They humble me.
The trees, right in front of me, were planted to honor 290 soldiers who gave their lives in that First World War. It was the War Mothers who chose to plant these trees. I believe…it was so you and I and others, for the past nearly 100 years…could stop and say,
“ We are grateful for your courage, and your service.”
I was reading, it was Alice Moore French who founded the War Mothers.
She was a Hoosier. She actually lived in Indianapolis.
The Indiana chapter was incorporated in May, 1918. When the news spread to mothers in other states, the National Organization was incorporated that very August, with Alice as the first President.
Across this country women came together not only to support one another, but to serve the soldiers, the veterans. Their work and their caring continued even after the war ended.
Alice was very interested in forming an International War Mothers—modeled after the newly established League of Nations. She traveled extensively across the United States and Europe hoping to open minds for one purpose—to find effective approaches for communicating differences…other than bloodshed.
Alice Moore French was a Difference-maker.
Photo credit to the National Archives. American soldiers on the Piave front hurling a shower of hand grenades into the Austrian trenches. Varage, Italy. (16 Sept. 1918)