Dear mother and father,
Life as a nurse in the Great War is not an easy life. Every day I am constantly faced with a new challenge. A few days ago we had many victims of trench foot show up at our door, and many of them were untreatable. Trench foot is a fungal infection of the feet caused by cold, wet, and unsanitary trench conditions much like ours. In result many of the soldiers must get them amputated. Every day there seems to be more and more deaths. If there is not a death someone is hurt. Tending to these soldiers makes me wonder how horrible their lives must be for them to say to me that they want me to just let them die. In our station alone, there are about fifteen cases of lice a day. When the lice spreads it is very hard contain because the eggs keep hatching, and more men are victims of lice. Unfortunately lice causes trench fever which is a disease that is very painful and recovery takes about twelve weeks outside of our trenches.
I can only imagine how lucky I am to be in this shelter and not out in the trenches or in no man’s land. It is almost impossible to believe that many of these soldiers were forced to fight with no option. The fear and homesickness they must be facing is horrible. It is hard enough being here to help the soldiers, and I am already homesick after one week. The second day I was here there was word spreading around that one man was shot because he was caught trying to run away. These men are trapped in these lives and cannot escape. Many of their combats die right in front of them and they can’t do anything about it or they will die trying to save them.