Hello ,Happy Halloween! This week my newsletter celebrates one year in production. I’m grateful to all of you who've been with me through this past year as I
launched PURE GRIT. I've loved every opportunity I’ve had to talk about the POW nurses, share the photographs and see people respond to the POW Nurses' strength and
courage. I thought it fitting to share with you how I first came to love these woman, how from the beginning they came alive for me and I couldn’t wait to share their story. Here’s are some of the women’s quotes that first captured my heart.
Meet the Women of PURE GRIT |
Army Nurse Anna Williams was twenty-one when she joined the Army. “When I told my parents…Mother said, ‘Ann Eleanor, why are you going to the Philippines? War is starting there.’ I said, ‘Oh, Mother, come on.’ Thinking…she doesn’t know.” Twenty-two-year-old Rita Palmer was stationed near Clark Air Field. “We were just kids and we were in a strange and different country. We were excited by everything we did. I remember being told by pilots that they were flying into formations of Japanese planes, and they were concerned. They tried to report it, but no one listened. Bu t I don’t think…we gave it a second thought.” She was eating lunch when the
Japanese attacked. “The horror of that first afternoon of war is burned in my memory -- the dead, the dying, the dismembered, who filled every inch of our small hospital, are epitomized for me by a legless 16-year old who had lied about his age to get into the army.” She was eating lunch when the Japanese attacked. “The horror of that first afternoon of war is burned in my memory -- the dead, the dying, the dismembered, who filled every inch of our small hospital, are epitomized for me by a
legless 16-year old who had lied about his age to get into the army.” When the U.S. Army retreated from Manila, the nurses got order to go with them. “Most of us had never heard of Bataan,” said Hattie Brantley. A week later, Hospital No. 1 overflowed with wounded. “I’d get down on my knees, finally not even bothering to arise, but crawling to the
next cot,” Hattie said. Frances Nash and stayed in Manila to treat the wounded left behind. The medical commander told her to prepare to be taken prisoner by the enemy. Late Christmas Eve, Frances finally got orders to flee. She stuffed her pockets with medical supplies and took enough morphine for a lethal dose for each of her nurses to be prepared if the worst should happen. The Battle of Bataan raged for three months. Soldiers died of sickness and disease as fast as they did from enemy bullets. Nurses fell sick, too. And food was running out. The last
cavalry horse was slaughtered, the last watery rice eaten. “Quit worrying!” Josie Nesbitt told herself. “Just accept what comes.” Bombs fell close by and hit Hospital No. 1’s central square. Rita Palmer was injured and transferred to Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor Island. Edith Shaklette heard small arms fire nearby in the jungle. In admitting, the wounded began coming in barefoot, dressed in rags and
wide-eyed with dread. They surrendered their rifles and begged for food. Word came the forces on Bataan would surrender the next morning. Five-thousand men lay helpless on bamboo beds or the wet jungle ground. Minnie Breese’s had always put her patients first. “Leave!” Her commander ordered. “Leave now.” Appalled and crying, she obeyed, climbing into the back of a truck. “Those eyes,” she said, “those eyes just followed us.” For nearly a month, safe in the tunnel hospital on Corregidor, the nurses tended the wounded and dying. But the
Americans were forced to surrender to the Japanese Army.“They lined us up out front of the hospital tunnel and they put an armed guard with a gun and a bayonet at each end of us,” said Madeline Ullum. A Japanese officer told the nurses not to be afraid. “I was scared spitless,” said Army Nurse Inez McDonald. Confined to Santo Tomas Internment Camp, the nurses set up a hospital and cared for sick prisoners. Helen Cassinni joined the Philippine resistance and helped smuggle food, medicine and
notes to American soldiers imprisoned nearby. “I worried a little bit about the risk,” she said. But knowing the men were being starved and tortured to death—“You had to trust…and help some GI out in some awful hellhole.” Their captivity stretched two years and then three. Navy Nurse Edwina Todd saw clothes wear thin, toilet paper run out, food grow steadily scarce, starvation and death commonplace. “Carpenters were no longer able to make coffins,
the grave-diggers to dig graves….,” said Edwina. Nurses were as sick as their patients. Eunice Young felt too weak to write in her diary. “But we have to keep going to take care of the others,” she said. Nurses feared they’d die before General MacArthur’s forces arrived to free them, but finally on the night of February 3, 1945, U.S. tanks burst through the gate. Amid the celebrating, two
wounded soldiers were carried in. Frankie Lewey jumped to assist a surgeon in amputating one soldier’s foot. The man rested, unconscious, but when he opened his eyes and smiled at her, “It was love at first sight,” she said. The leadership of Commander Maude Davidson, in great part, brought all her nurses home. According to researcher Elizabeth Norman, Maude’s “prescription for endurance and courage”—order, discipline and dedication to nursing—plus
the sisterhood they formed, kept them alive. Thank you for reading! I know your time is valuable and I appreciate you spending a few minutes with me today. I am always happy to hear your thoughts If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please forward this e-mail.
Currently, new subscribers will be entered in a drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to their favorite independent books store. I will never spam you or sell your email address, you can unsubscribe below anytime with a single mouse click. If you'd like to get your hands on a copy of PURE GRIT, here's the place! If you'd like a signed copy and I'm not coming to your neighborhood soon, let me know. I can send you a personally autographed book or a signed bookplate. To find out more about my books, how I help students, teacher and librarians, visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com. My best, Mary
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