77 14 15 16 17 18 The GreatWar The voices of minority writers are key in the Operation Canada Digital War Diaries Project including the war diary of Edith Anderson (18901996) (Figure 8) from Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. Anderson’s original diary has been safeguarded by her family descendants. After her death, they prepared a typed transcription, which served as our copytext, taking readers into her daily activities at the Base Hospital 23 in Vittel in northern France. This hospital unit had been organized by Westchester County Associated Hospitals in Yonkers, NY, Anderson having trained in the United States after being denied access to nursing schools in Canada because she was Indigenous. Today, her diary shares her daily routines of caring for patients, reporting her increased load after going on night duty for two weeks, on June 6, 1918: “Had a busy day to-day and went on night duty. Had fifty-seven patients and three German prisoners to take care of.” Ten days later, still on nightshift, one of Anderson’s young patients with whom she had become friends, Earl King, died, leaving her deeply affected: “Had hemorrhage at 3:15 A.M. The poor boy lost consciousness immediately. My heart was broken. Cried most of the day and could not sleep.” Two days later she reports going to his funeral: “Came off night duty this A.M. Did not go to bed at all. Went for a bath then sat in the park with Jean Carruthers and wrote letters. The weather was doubtful with showers of rain and then sunshine. After dinner went to the florists and ordered flowers for my boy who died. At 3 P.M. went to his funeral. It rained through the whole ceremony and my feet were wet, but I didn’t mind I paid my last respects to Earl. Retired early this evening as I had to report for duty the next day.” Besides these overseas diary accounts of crises, pain, and human connection, the Operation Canada Digital Diaries Project collects and makes accessible home-front diaries written by women and men in urban and rural settings in Canada. Illuminating the civilian experience of the war from the perspectives of home-front preoccupations, these diaries inscribe both trauma and patriotism along with minority writers’ hope for integration and recognition through involvement in the war. One of the featured home-front diarists, Ella
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