Seventy-sixth installment from the diary of my great-grandfather’s sister Alise, written during the First World War. When the diary starts, she is living just a few miles from the front lines of the Eastern Front, and is then forced to flee with her husband and two young daughters to her family’s house near Limbaži as the war moves even closer. Her third child, a son, was born there in February 1916. The family has now relocated (again) to a home near Valmiera, and the Russian Revolution is in full swing. For more background, see here, and click on the tag “diary entries” to see all of the entries that I have posted.

If there is mention of a recognizable historical figure and event, I will provide a Wikipedia link so that you can read more about the events that Alise is describing. It is with this entry here that the calendar in Latvia changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

August 31, 1918

I am home alone today. The children and the girls are picking mushrooms in the woods. Papa is threshing rye. The threshing machines are singing their sombre autumn song, an entire choir of them around us, roaring and buzzing everywhere.

Another summer dreamt away. Compared to last summer, we are rested and feeling good. Our life, as long as there is peace, is full and not lacking in anything. Our souls also fulfilled living this close to town. On Sunday we celebrated the Bible festival, after that there were three Christian meetings, which were very involved, thanks to many good forces. Men are making plans for the future, about schools, institutions, meetings. Oh if only we could stay here close to town, how great that would be for the children! If God wishes it, it will happen, our thoughts are not His thoughts.

WW1 Diary – August 31, 1918
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