Peggie

Jimmy. son of Peggie and Sam

In 1918 Peggie’s heart overflowed with love for the tiny boy she held in her arms, and she whispered a promise into his twelve-minute old ear.  “No matter what, I will never leave you, and I will always love you”. She vowed Jimmy would have the best life she could give him because she knew he would never know his soldier father.  

Sam was a New Zealand Soldier hospitalised in England after serving at the Western Front, and she was his Nurse.  They had fallen in love amid the turmoil of WWI, the terrible fires of war, death and destruction across Europe, nightly blackouts and bombing raids in England, and awful fear when they heard the German Planes overhead, it all gave such urgency to their love.  

Then there was the last goodbye, the scratchy wool of his uniform against her cheek, her throat choked with sobs “I may not be back…please don’t cry for me Peggie”.  She had just memories now, his strength and his courage, his smiling face as he waved goodbye, and the ship of Kiwi soldiers containing her one true love was gone forever.

Now the war was over and Sam was on the other side of the world, back to his wife and his child in New Zealand, and despite his declarations of love she knew she would never be his, that his heart and his life belonged elsewhere, and that raising Jimmy was always and only going to be her responsibility.