Mothers, Daughters, and War
Maria Butcher (my grandmother) with Mary (my mom) I resisted writing my usual sappy mother's day post yesterday, but here I am doing it today. The above photo always blows me away. It could have been taken in the 1980's, I think, except for Mama's bathing suit. Instead, it was taken in 1928. My grandmother, Mama told me, was a flapper. My grandmother was also depressed. She killed herself on December 13, 1941. Actually, she took poison on December 10th and died on the 13th. After years of my mother's annual depression and anger around the 13th, I finally asked mom what year it was my grandmother died. "1941." "It didn't have anything to do with Pearl Harbor, though, right?" "It was because of Pearl Harbor. It was because she knew we would soon be going to war with Germany." Everybody knew that Roosevelt was just waiting for an excuse to go to war in Europe. War on one front served as a gateway to war on another. Sound famil...