Time Will Tell
A novel inspired by the true story of 29 German graves in Hampton Virginia's National Cemetery
by
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We had one big commotion here in the spring,” Rose said. “I haven’t gotten over it yet.”
“A commotion in the cemetery?”
“Yeah, over there, where you were.”
“What happened?” Julia said.
“It’s a long story. You sure I’m not bothering you?”
“Please, tell me. Rose?”
“Yes. I’m Rose Washington. My husband and I were sitting on the porch. It was the first evening that was warm enough to sit out. Everything was quiet and peaceful and then along came the army. They used to come by here going to
Rose dug in her pocketbook. “Whew! I wondered if I’d remembered my ration stamp book. Here it is. I didn’t want to go into town without it. Where was I?”
“The army vehicles had pulled into the cemetery,” Julia prompted Rose.
“Yes. By now the whole neighborhood had come out to see what was happening. There were a lot of men – looked like prisoners. They put them to work digging. And not just one, or two graves. No, Ma’am. They had them dig twenty-nine graves. I counted them. Twenty-nine. One of the soldiers tried to tell us to get back in our houses. He said it was none of our business.
“I told Thomas we’d best do what they said,” Rose continued. “But he kept asking what they were doing. Someone said they were burying bodies of merchant marines who had washed up on shore. Then somebody else said they were burying Germans. I ‘spose the Good Lord knows. They took crates out of the trucks and men in dress uniform carried them to the graves.”
“Was that the end of it?”
“Goodness, no. Thomas told me to go inside. He ran down to the corner to call the newspaper. Next thing, they fired those terrible guns. I thought we were all going to die. Were they gonna shoot us ‘cause we were watching? But they weren’t. They just shot into the air like they do. I think they call them blanks, but they’re plenty loud.
“It was dark by then. A navy boy played taps. Everybody stood there listening. The sound of that horn was something in the night – no other sound, just the bugle.
(She hummed) Hmmm, hmm, hmm.
Hmm, hmm, hmmmmm,
Hmm, hmm, hmmmmm,
Hmm, hmm, hmmmmm.
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About the Book
During the first several months of
But at
In Time Will Tell, Ann Davis reveals the truth about the burial of twenty-nine German sailor’s in
About the Author
Ann Davis is telling the story of her hometown and how it was transformed from a fishing community to a booming war town during World War II. Ann researched her topic thoroughly. She used archive and newspaper accounts, letters, journals and personal interviews to recreate the era. Ann, born during the war, admits she was looking for a story of patriotism and romance, but found a story of the tremendous price we paid for the war - not just in casualties, but in the hearts of the survivors.