20
EVELYN – DECEMBER 1942
Evelyn had started to wonder if the war would ever end. It had gone on for a whole year, and she was dismayed when the news broadcasts included the numbers of men who had been killed. Whenever she went out, to the store or to walk to church, her stomach would clench when she saw the gold stars in neighbors’ windows, black wreaths on the doors. She told herself not to look. She didn’t have to look. She could just walk on by. But something always nudged her to take a quick glance. And always there would be one more.
At first, she didn’t know what those stars meant, but Russell told her it was a sign that the family had lost a son in combat. At the time, Evelyn thought it odd that the family would get a gold star, but as the weeks and months of the war dragged on,
