New Britain herald., 1919-05-30
(By E. c. Rodgers.)

lbN t.. V. fLOuSeT5.J Evansville, Ind, May 30.-"Yes, l
 would like to have them bring back
 my boy. I cannot go over to where
 they have lain him. And even if I
 could, just coming once to his grave
 and then going away forever would break my heart. I want to go near his last resting place often, every few days during the few years I have to live.
 "It has been hard for me to see the boys come marching home so happy and smiling to their mothers 1 arms, and think that I cannot even go to my boys grave!
 'Only a mother knows how hard it is not to be able to see the spot where son is sleeping the last long sleep; never to be able to kneel in
 prayer at his grave; never to be able ! to lay one flower with ones own hand upon the earth which covers l him.
 That's why I want my boys body 1 brought back. I want him near me,
 so I can go to his grave. So I can 1 take flowers to him. And so I will
 know that his grave is we'll cared for,
 as a mother would care for it. And 1 so when I die, I may be laid down 1 beside him.
 A mother is talking A Gold Star 1 War Mother. The first Gold Star War 1 Mother, Mrs. Alice Gresham Dodd,
 mother of Jimmy Gresham, first
 American soldier killed in action on l the fields of France.
 ! I talked with her in her cottage l home, memorial gift of the people 1 of r 11a ]l
 and which he left to go to the heights
 of glory-and his death.
 Jimmy is sleeping now in a gave
 in France. It was the first of our l hero graves in France. His mother may never see Jimmys grave-un-
 less his body is brought back home. 1T have a place picked out for l him." his mother said, There in the l cemetery, where I can go and pray
 by the side of the mound every day.
 I hope they bring him back while { I'm still alive. That's all I think of
 now-when my boys body is brought l back to me.
 1 You know I'm getting pretty old ! Since Jimmy went away I have been 1 getting old faster than I did when he l was with me. l hope they bring him ! back before I die.'
 | The nfSL dOld SIdI war MOtneT 1 couldn't say more. Her tear-dimmed | eyes had halted her tongue. Let us remember that it was this l Gold Star War Mother who refused 1 to wear black when her son was slain l in battle because she didn't want to ] depress the hearts of other war l mothers whose sons had gone to serve their country, and of still others | whose sons awaited the call to arms.
 Some months ago Mrs. Dodd was asked by the United States war de- l partment if she wanted her sons body brought back. She wrote and told 1 them that nothing would please her l more than to have her sons body 1 brought back to his old home and l buried there.
 Since then she has heard nothing.
 She is living in a daily anticipation l of hearing that her son is on his way home-not as she had hoped 1 he would come back when he first
 wont away, but coming back, hero 1 who gave his all. his life. Other Gold Star War Mothers have l received the same formal inquiry 1 from the governments: DO you want 1 your sons body brought back from 1 France? If so, do you want it re- I turned to your home or do you want 1 it inferred in the national cemetery?" Thus far no hero's body has been
 returned. The government has not
 announced when the first will be , brought back. Investigation in