Apr 18, 2019 12:00 PM
Laurie Carlson
World War I Journal of her grandfather
Having lived with my grandparents when I was young, there was never a word spoken about my grandfather's time spent in WWI.  When his daughter, my Aunt Lucy, died in 2011, she left me all of my grandfather's things.  I found a journal that he had kept during 1918/19.  It was written in Swedish and eventually I sent it to Elin Ohlsson, a Rotary Exchange student from Sweden who spent 1996 with our club, and she and her father translated his journal for me.  His story is heart wrenching and will let you imagine what it was like on the front line with the 77th Division from August 7, 1918 through November 11, 1918; three months in the Argonne Forrest in France under horrific conditions.  Using his journal, Sharon Starr and followed his footsteps across France in 2016.  It was so emotional for me that I couldn't share this program before now.