The Wounded Man of the Somme

They occupied drawers, ledgers, boxes tied with string that no one dared set on the floor. They left behind razors whose blades had rusted inside leather cases, broken pipes, First Communion medals, two-sou coins sewn into a lining, and above all photographs. These troubled Marthe more than anything else. A watch could be numbered. So could a wedding ring. A photograph looked back at you.

He came home from the front asking for a wife and daughter who did not exist.