1913

On the Cusp of WWI Tragedy Struck for the Nugent Family

By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 09, 2015

1913

In old age
Mom looked so like
Her grandmother
Recalled summers
As a child
Spent on Beaver Dam Farm
Hearing the matriarch
Crying herself to sleep
Mourning the loss
Just before the war
Armory Show in New York
Paterson New Jersey Strike
1913 such a terrible year
Death of two oldest sons
Not on Flanders Field
Robert and John
Fatal accidents
Taking the wagon to Gloucester
With shoes to repair
Horse spooked and bolted
Thrown and killed
Like Isadora Duncan
Scarf caught in spokes
Death by motorcycle
Back to back
Then one more
Daughter Mary
Just twenty
Lingering tuberculosis
Mom remembered
Her aunt frail and coughing
Great grand mother
On her own
After philandering Patrick passed
Running the farm
Enduring such terrible loss
As the world went to war
Over There