Women played a huge role in wartime too
CONGRATULATIONS to all who worked so hard to make this year’s Armistice Day such a success throughout the country. It is important to honour those who lives were sacrificed and those who fought and returned home.
I would like to see a time or a day to honour and/or remember the women who stayed at home. Wives, mothers and sisters who farewelled a family member with a ‘‘smile’’ on their faces because public tears and emotions were frowned on then.
Those women who worked to fill the jobs the men had had to leave, those women who coped with rationing and coupon books and caring for a family without the support of a father, and yet still were able to send parcels overseas.
Those women who welcomed their loved one home again only to find the majority of them changed, angry, broken, silent, morose and depressed.
There wasn’t a mental health system to help them or their loved one cope as showing emotion or talking about what had happened was a sign of weakness. Good old stiff upper lip prevailed.
I have talked with a number of people recently who remember their own mother or father having a hard upbringing because their parents’ marriage was difficult and unemotional.
ALL suffer because of war. Let us not forget that. Penny Sinnamon
Omakau
I FOUND very interesting the letter from Tony Newton (ODT, 13.11.18) regarding his views on how the many brave men who fought in that war would feel if they could see what shape the society they had enabled was in.
I feel he missed out quite a few historical facts in surmising that they would not be happy.
Firstly, not all those chosen to fight were selfless men (and women) with bravery and honour oozing out of their ears. Many were with criminal records, most if not all were very scared, and most did not know the real reasons behind the strife, as they were illinformed and kept so purposely.
Secondly, the modern age does not have a mortgage on incompetent leadership, politically or militarily. At the time of the Great War, most countries were governed or ruled by selfserving, dispassionate elite classes, often cruel ones at that, who kept their populace as ignorant and as submissive as they could.
I think that most of the servicemen, if they could see the world now, would be pleased to see the progress that has been made to improve the lot of the general population.
Although I doubt they would think much of body piercings, weird haircuts, silly tattoos, caps worn backwards and trouser crutches that ride around the inner knees. But they wouldn’t be alone in that. Pete Jenkins
Galloway
THE articles about the 1918 Armistice have been very interesting. It is truly tragic how many young lives were lost in such a futile way.
However, I am frustrated (as I am every Anzac Day) at the way the media concentrates on the deaths, and either ignores, or barely mentions, the many, many who came back to New Zealand wounded physically and/or psychologically.
My grandfather was wounded and mustardgassed in World War 1. He spent the rest of his life with breathing difficulties and eventually died of emphysema. His lungs were so damaged they were kept as Medical School specimens. He was so weak that he couldn’t even hold me when I was born because he was scared he’d drop me. Yet he won’t be listed on any memorials (even though the war killed him). He won’t be listed in The Empire’s Cause column as he lived too long. It feels as if his sacrifice, and that of so many others, is either ignored or forgotten. Christine Philp
Dunedin .....................................
BIBLE READING: I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers . . . — Philemon 1:14