| Summary: | This fourth volume marks the conclusion of Dad Morry's life history as retold by him in writing for the first time, serialised in the first four volumes of this series. The fourth and final diary in the set deals with the terrible events of trench warfare on the Somme and at Ypres, his evacuation due to diseases such as trench fever and rheumatic fever, and his happy return home and reunification with his wife and family in Newfoundland. This was not the only time that Howard felt compelled to put into words his life story. Years later, as will be discovered in the transcript of future volumes in this series, he once again laboriously wrote down anew a detailed account of the significant events of this life. This was partially to ensure that details initially forgotten and later remembered were recorded, but also because he was concerned that his earliest diaries might somehow be lost or destroyed and the effort of putting together his thoughts lost forever. Reading the later accounts will also reveal that there were differences in how he remembered the events of his life, including facts like dates and places, but even the names of those who were present and played a part in those events. Unfortunately there is no way now to ascertain which account, the first or the future retellings of his story, was actually more accurate. Perhaps in the end it does not matter that much, as both versions are entertaining and shed some light on the past thorough initially the eyes of a middle aged man, and then later the eyes of an elderly man approaching the end of his life and looking back, perhaps with diminished memory, but perhaps also with more nostalgia and emotion on events that took place decades before. The Diaries of Howard Leopold Morry, 1939-1965, Vol. 04 (Jan 4, 1950)
|
|---|