8 - A War Widow's Mourning

Summary

His passing came as a heavy blow to us as we were all expecting to see his dear face any day ... He was counting the hours waiting to come home to us. It is hard to understand why one so good and loveable as Allan should be taken but we dare not question God's will as he sees all and his will and doings is flawless … [I have] fond memories of the husband I loved so well to help me in this saddest time of my life …

On New Year's Day 1942, Mrs Josephine Johnson, the widow of Corporal John Johnson, wrote to Private Charlie Fraser, a member of her deceased husband's battalion. Johnson had died a year earlier, inTobruk, at the age of thirty-nine. ‘You, no doubt are wondering who is writing to you’, she wrote self-consciously after such a period of time had elapsed, ‘but as John always referred to you as my pal Charlie I feel it is quite right addressing my letter that way.’ She thanked him for the companionship he offered her husband, and knew that he and his fellow soldiers would understand her predicament, for they would ‘know how great my loss is. I will never get over it. It is purely and simply hell trying to carry on without him but I must do it and with a smile too, as I promised him I would.’ The moment of death not only remained with her, but also marked the memory of the couple's eight children. Their family of six sons and two daughters ranged in age from fourteen years to five months at the time of Johnson's death.