YesBut wear your hat with pride - Part 2

Continued from yesterday

For YesBut’s Image posted on the 17th June 2007, Chewy suggested the caption

“Smile and look at the birdie!”

The photograph suggested the following story to me, (continued from yesterday):

Each week William and Emily exchanged loving letters. They dreamt of the end of the war when they would be permanently reunited and would be married. At the first battle of the Somme Williams battalion were in the first wave to “go over the top”. It was a slaughter. Around him troops were mowed down, by the end of the first day William was the sole survivor of his unit. He had survived because as he climbed out of the trench he had slipped and twisted his ankle. He was tormented with guilt, why had he survived when all his men had been killed. Left in a state of shock he was granted home leave.

When Emily met William at the railway station, on his return on home leave from the World War 1 frontline she hardly recognised him, he had aged thirty years, and his hair and moustache were almost white. She had difficulty communicating with him, he seemed to be so remote. He was there physically, but he was a soulless body. He brooded around the manor house; all he had on his mind was his return to the front and the opportunity to die. Emily was determined to have her old William back. To take himself out of himself she persuaded him to go out riding with her.

On horse back he became like a mad man, taking reckless risks jumping fences and ditches. While he was caught up in his frenzy he did not notice his horse was in distress, the strain of attempting to jump a high fence was too great, and the horse collapsed with a burst blood vessel. Unfortunately the forward momentum flung William forward; regrettably he did not quite clear the fence. When Emily found him he was hanging from the fence. She jumped off her horse and finding supper human strength dragged him off the fence. If only she had looked before acting, she might have noticed that her beloved William was dangling by his testicles. She would hear his high pitched scream for the rest of her life. Being an innocent young lady she initially did not fully appreciate the implications of the accident.

To be continued tomorrow - Bookmark this page.