Madison's letters (Activity Letters from trenches)

Nurse during WWI (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Dear mum,

I haven't seen a worse situation before. Most of the soldiers at trenches are getting hurt, due to  bullets, or ill, due to the fever and strange diseases, or even both.

The lack of hygiene is destroying us and we don't know how to control it. However, we, the Red Cross, are considered like heroes; we are taking out loads of corpses and soldiers in bad conditions. Somedays, we are entering into bunkers with the fear of being attacked, but most of the days we take ill people to the hospital or even help them inside the trenches, while they are boring, waiting fot the next battle. This situation is very exhausting. 

Furthermore, some of my partners are getting ill, due to the contagiuos diseases of the soldiers. This is very arduous, because we have to take care of soldiers and ourselves.

However, one of the nastiest disease is the trench foot, that is a strange illness which has a hard treatment. It's caused by the humidity and the water in the trenches that arrive to soldiers' feet, causing descomposition in them, due to the fail in the cells and the flow of the blood. Many of the affected soldiers finished with an amputation of a leg or a foot. 

I don't know if I will survive. I wish this war would end soon.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you, 

Your beloved daughter Madison.

Letter written by M. F., student of 4º A (IES TIEMPOS MODERNOS 2018-2019)

* Cursive parts are teacher's corrections.