the front is now completed .... i think - i am happy with the visual simplicity - it might not mean much to others but each element holds layers of meaning and family history for me - just the background of Adelphe's letter reminds me of a story told at the family reunion in 2016: every day, long after Adelphe had been reported missing in action on 23rd July 1916 and long after the Armistice in 1918, Marie Delvallet sent one of the children to check to post box at the school gate (village school heads lived on site), every day the child returned without fresh news of their father - i guess it would mostly have been Simone and Marthe going to the post box, Jean was born in 1916 so he could hardly have gone out to the gate until some years later - i wonder if Marie still held a glimmer of hope even after Adelphe was officially recorded as deceased in January 1921?
last year Adelphe was memorialised in Camiers, the community where he and Marie lived and taught in the local school - i would have liked to attend the ceremony but relatives in france were only informed 2 days before the event, even though it had been in preparation for a couple of years - but at least the family were represented by two of Adelphe's grand children
my plans for the back of the Sawdust Heart have shifted since i decided to leave it uncovered
i think day 936 of WW1 would be february 17th 1917, i might pin-stick the date in the blank area
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