It was cool that evening, the soft summer breeze touching lightly along the treetops, the flowers by the walkway, winding towards the door. She often stood outside in the early evenings, just for a moment or two, reflecting on the day’s events. Some days were good, some days were bad, but mostly all the days were the same. A monotonous round of work, meals, household jobs, conversations that never really meant anything beyond filling the moment. It was a tedious check-list of the minutiae of daily living. Everybody around her did the same thing with little to no variation. It was all she knew. 

When he walked, sometimes his feet hurt. Sometimes it was his belly that ached or his head. He longed for silence but all he heard was noise, just noise, over and over again.  He kept walking though, he was brave that way. He could walk through pain because he had a destination he was trying to reach. He was so determined.  Sometimes his heart beat too fast but he kept walking. 

It was cool that evening when he reached home. He could see her standing outside, the breeze ruffling her hair and her sleeves.  She lifted her arms slowly outwards towards the sky, as though she was trying to hold something closer. He lift his arms outwards slowly, as though he was trying to hold something closer.  

“Mama, Mama. I am here. I made it home.” 

She couldn’t see him, couldn’t hear him. She didn’t know how hard he tried to get home, how much war he walked through before he stopped walking. She carefully folded the official notice from the War Office informing her that her son had died in the war, tracing her finger over the date and place again, just as she did every night.  All the mothers of all the wars, all the boys of all the wars.  

World War One  1918

World War Two 1945

Great Patriotic War of Russia, 1945

Indonesia, 1949 

Greece, 1949

Korea, 1953

Suez, Egypt 1956

Algeria, 1962

Congo, 1965

Thailand, 1961

Vietnam, 1970 

Yemen, 1970

Dhofar, 1974

Cambodia, 1975

Afghanistan, 1979

Iran, 1979

Philippines, 1980s

Argentina, 1980s

Lebanon, 1990

Eritrea, 1991 

El Salvador, 1992 

Yugoslavia, 1990s

Chechnya, 1999

Sri Lanka, 2004

Kashmir, 2010

Ukraine, 2014

Aleppo, 2015

Raqqa 2016

Yemen 2021

Ukraine 2022

Gaza 2024

Sudan 2025