I would rather to have had you for 21 years, and all the pain that goes with losing you, then never to have had you at all. -Mrs Eleanor Wimbish, mother of Willam R. Stocks, US Army, KIA
Johnny,
I guess, since we haven't gotten mail from you in quite a few days, that you're out with the company. Uncle Jacob tells me it's perfectly normal and that most likely you're safer than if you were with just your unit. Strength in numbers, he said. I hope he's right.
Bernie is keeping up with his strange behavior. I don't know whether to ask him about it or not. I think Uncle Jacob might talk with him. Every night after Bernie leaves the room after the news, Jacob looks up from his paper and watches Bernie leave. I hope he's okay. Maybe I was right in not letting him watch the news. But if you say that he is older enough...
I know I always tell you to be safe, but it's always been for selfish reasons. I don't want to lose you because I'm afraid of it's after effects. The pain I went through with the loss of your father was great and I fear the pain of losing you. If the loss of you creates anything near the pain I felt when your father died, I don't know what I'll do. I know I don't talk about him and that, in a way, I have forbidden you and Bernie to talk about him. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do. I was afraid of the pain I thought talking about him would bring. But... what he did was wrong. It is wrong. I didn't want you and Bernie to think he was a bad man, a bad Jewish man. But maybe what I did was wrong, too. I don't know. I hope, in time if not now, you will understand this. You will understand my reasoning. I hope you can understand. I hope you can forgive me, if you believe I was wrong.
I'm sorry.
Love,
Mom
A/N: Eleanor Wimbish left many letters at the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, DC for her son. They were all collected and are stored with other things left for those whose names are on the Wall.