"Where have I been, dear sister? I suppose that I have been doing some of the very same things that all of you have been doing, I have been living, constantly reminded and painfully aware of how fragile life actually is. There is so much to tell you, and as I can see, so much for me to catch up on. I suppose first of all, you want me to continue my tale. So let us sit, and I shall fill you in on the brief life of John Doe Darcy, because until the accident six months ago, that is who I have been."

Everyone did as Walter instructed, and he did continue his story,

"I woke in a field hospital, having been unconscious for two weeks due
a concussion received from a nearby shell explosion. Sitting next to
me, wiping my brow with a damp cloth, was the most beautiful young
woman upon which I had ever laid eyes. Even though I couldn't
remember any other woman at that time, I knew that she was still the
most breathtakingly beautiful creature that God had ever created.

Rays of sunlight shone on her golden hair, and gave her emerald eyes
added depth and sparkle. She noticed I was awake and greeted me with
a warm, loving, and thankful smile and even a single tear falling from
an eye, 'Good morning. I am very glad to see that you are awake. I
was beginning to think that I would never get to meet you. No, don't
try to speak. You must rest. There are all sorts of questions that
we all will have when you are stronger. I must get the doctor now,
the attend you.'

Then she left, leaving the angelic sound of her voice playing in my
head. She returned soon with a doctor. He examined me and asked me
if I knew who I was. I opened my mouth to reply, but realized that I
had no answer. He asked if I knew from where I came, and I had the
same reply. I couldn't remember who I was or anything else. My first
memory was of seeing Katie's, as I soon came to know her, face.

No one had any record of who I was. It seemed that Katie had taken
quite an interest in my well-being the two weeks that I was
unconscious. Her twin brother, Albert, was at the front, and I kept
her mind off what he was experiencing.

Their own story is quite a remarkable one. You see they were from the
States. Their parents were natives of Derbyshire England, where their
father was the youngest son of an Earl of a rather large estate.
Father and son had a falling out. It seemed George, named for his
grandfather's favorite aunt, had fallen madly in love with a tenant's
daughter, Abigail Marten. His father, Henry, had wanted more for his
son and demanded he have nothing more to do with Abigail. George
refused his father's demand. He had always wanted to live a life of
freedom and had read of the United States Government giving away land
to farm in a land called Oklahoma.

George married Abigail in a quiet ceremony before they set sail to
America. They did start a homestead in Oklahoma, near a town called
Tulsa. They farmed and raised cattle there and had their only two
children.

Together, they built a home, and even reestablished ties with their
family, because old Darcy finally overcame prejudice and saw that his
son was living the life that was meant for him.

When Albert and Katie were still young, oil was discovered on their
family's ranch. Soon they were part of the bustling oil industry that
has made that area so popular.

When war broke out between England and Germany, Albert was in England
studying law with his cousin, William. They both joined up. Katie,
being as obstinate and headstrong as her ancestors, refused to sit
idly by as the States did little to aid in the war. She joined the
VAD's to be near her brother, and not long after her twenty-third
birthday, she was sent to Courcelette. That is where she found me,
and took me in an ambulance to the field hospital.

She tried to help me remember anything. She read poetry to me, and
somehow I knew the lines before she read them. We both found that we
were fond of Tennyson. We became friends. She was a kindred spirit.

When I was sent to a hospital in Chesterfield, she transferred there
too. Her family's land was nearby. We would take long walks along
the peaks together, and she often commented on the fact that I must
have been a learned poet or something like that before the war, and
that my disappearance must have broken many hearts.

We dreamed together of when the war would end, and kept hope. I was
madly in love with her, but afraid to act on it because I had nothing,
not even a name to give her. I had been released and discharged. Her
grandfather and his family took me in. They made me a part of their
family. I seemed to fill a void left by William and Albert. I think
I also helped him heal over the loss of young George all those years
before. It seemed that despite their reconciliation, he regretted his
actions and obstinacy.

We continued on in this friendly confidant fashion until April and the
battle of Arras occurred. William was wounded and lost his left arm.
Albert was killed by a bullet through the head. I was with Katie when
she found out. She was so hurt, so crushed. She tried to remain
strong around everyone else, but around me she would fall apart, and I
would hold her. To think of it now, I know somewhat how you must have
felt when my news came, and though I had no choice or control, I am
still sorry to have had it happen.

Katie's grandfather new that she needed to be home. She needed to
return to the hills and streams that she had wandered as a child. Her
broken heart needed to heal. It wasn't a safe passage back to
America, but it was what she needed, so with Grandfather Henry's
blessing, I accompanied her.

In time, she did heal, and I went to work with her father managing the
farm and oil company. They took me in as a son. I no longer had
nothing to give her, and I asked her to be my wife. In an
unconventional manner, I took her family's name when we married in
spring 1918.

We were very much in love. Katie and her Johnny, as I was called,
couldn't have been happier. Things couldn't get better. Then the
Influenza Epidemic came.

Mr. Darcy sent us to live at the country house, Dovedale, just as
people did when the Plague hit England so long ago. He couldn't stand
to lose Katie as well as Albert. He tried to get Abigail to join us,
but she refused to leave his side, and he felt he had to stay at the
office.

Months went by, and we thought that everyone had gotten through all
right. Then the letter came stating that both George and Abigail had
died suddenly from the horrible influenza. Once again, I had to hold
Katie as her life turned tragic. This time, I had lost those that I
cared for too. We grieved together. Then in January of 20', we were
blessed yet again. On that snowy, cold day, Albert Tennyson and
Abigail Hope were born. We called them 'Tenny' and 'Hope.' I had
never felt so much joy and love in my life.

We sold the oil business for a good share in 22' because Tulsa was
tainted by a great amount of violence the year before. We wanted
nothing to do with the city, and resided solely at Dovedale.

We had some very good years there together. We even were expecting a
third child. Then the accident happened. Thankfully, the children
weren't with us. We had spent the evening together on Grand Lake. It
was dark and starting to rain. Then, a blasted oil truck hydroplaned
and hit our Model T head-on.

I had a blow to the head, and was unconscious. Katie was thrown from
the car. I woke up in the hospital, remembering who I was, and
finding my wife barely hanging on to life in the bed next to me. She
lost the baby, but I thought that my love could bring her back.

I told her my name. She told me that it suited me so much more than
Johnny, that it suited my eyes. I told her of Ingleside, of Prince
Edward Island, of mother and dad, and all of you. She told me how she
loved you all already. Every day, I would sit by her bedside and tell
her tales of all the Ingleside folk and all the stories of all the
people I had ever known. She told me that I should get in touch with
my family, that I would need them. I thought she was getting well;
she knew better. I did call family. I called Grandfather Henry.

By the time he made it to Oklahoma, she was getting weaker and weaker,
but when she saw him walk through the door with her cousin, Jane, she
told him, "Hello Grandfather. I want you to meet my husband, Walter
Cuthbert Blythe."

At first, he thought that she was just delirious, and then I explained
how my memories returned with the accident. He was very glad to know
that I wasn't a tramp, though he said he knew in his heart that I
couldn't be.

That night, she told me that I needed to return home to heal, and that
it was the greatest honor of her life to have been Katie Blythe. She
also told me that it comforted her to know that her children had such
a loving place to grow up, and would never know a life without love.
She told me how I saved her life when I awoke in that field hospital.
I told her that no, she was my salvation, and that without her; I
would always have been just John Doe.

Then she was gone. In the blink of an eye, my life was gone. I
didn't want to continue living. That was when Grandfather Henry
reminded me of Tenny and Hope. 'Son, I know what you're suffering. I
too lost my wife too early. I found that I could continue to live
though when I saw my three sons and two daughters and thought of them
growing up as orphans. They need you. You need them. Go to your
people. Heal at home the way Katie healed here. Just don't forget
your Derbyshire family either.'

How could I forget them? They had been my only family for so long. I
left Dovedale in the capable hands of our closest friends there, the
McGowan family. We buried Katie and came here. That is the short
version of my life story the last several years."

Once again, the room was filled with tears. Anne, feeling Walter's anguish, held her son to her breast and rocked him as she had when he was a baby. "I would love to have known your Katie, dear Walter. She sounds like an angel. I cannot wait to meet my grandchildren either. Where are they?" Walter smiled to his mother with the pride that only a father could have. "They are safe in a hotel in Charlottetown with Grandfather Henry and Jane, waiting for me to return with the all-clear to come to Ingleside. I will bring them here tomorrow on the evening train."

The stubborn Anne of olden-days came out and vehemently stated, "Oh no, you will not! Your father and I will accompany you on the morning train because I cannot wait to meet them, and I cannot imagine having you away from me again so soon."