Clare Hollingworth in 1985. Credit United News/Popperfoto, via Getty Images. From The New York Times.
Clare Hollingworth, who died this week at the age of 105, broke the news of the outbreak of WWII when Germans invaded Poland. Her life is fascinating. You can read more about her here and here.
My mother, Joan, writes about the outbreak of the war in this poem she wrote at the age of 16.
A photo taken while she was a nature study counselor in Michigan. It was taken the day the war began, before she realized it. Below she has written, “September 1, 1939!!!”
After 12 – Sept 27 – 1939
In Memory – August 31, 1939
I remember standing in the crooked shadow of the Catalpa tree
The August-September night it started.
White moon on the grass and moon mist over the fields.
Even then. It was so still.
The crickets sang farewell to summer.
And the smell of a golden reaping
Was rich in the air.
Even then. While we were so still
Somewhere the guns were beginning to boom
And another crop was being harvested.
Home Front Girl 