I found a scrap of paper on which my mother, Ruth (Stewart) Voisin, wrote a poem.\u00a0 In December 1945, World War II had finally ended.\u00a0 Ruth was only 18 years old.\u00a0 She had just left home and moved to Philadelphia to enroll at the Franklin School of Science and Arts.\u00a0 This was against her father’s wishes, who said college was no place for women.\u00a0 Her mother had died two years prior.\u00a0 With no financial help from her father, she began her way in the world.<\/p>\n
She always loved poetry and transcribed many famous poems in her notebooks.\u00a0 She also wrote her own poems.\u00a0 In this one, I can envision her sitting in her room at the YWCA looking out her window to the street below:\u00a0 A young woman on her own, and filled with a sense of peace and hopefulness about the future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The First Snow<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been in Philly since summer
\nAnd now that December is here
\nIt brings the first snow to the city
\nAnd the Angel\u2019s song to my ear.<\/p>\nI hear in the distance the clock
\nChimming slowly the hour of seven
\nAnd I know that right now this minute
\nThe earth is very close to heaven.<\/p>\nAnd peace surrounds my spirit.
\nAnd my heart knows things are right
\nWhen I hear on the street below
\nYoung voices singing \u201cSilent Night\u201d<\/p>\nThen God looks down and smiles
\nAnd it reflects on all the trees
\nAnd the sound of all the traffic
\nBecomes a beautiful symphony<\/p>\nThe world becomes silent\u2014it listens
\nFor the first time in years
\nThe guns are still and respectful
\nAnd there are many grateful tears<\/p>\nThat face this new found challenge
\nThe one of lasting contentment and peace
\nAny may every day bring these things
\nAnd the wonder of Christmas never cease<\/p>\nMe<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I found a scrap of paper on which my mother, Ruth (Stewart) Voisin, wrote a poem.\u00a0 In December 1945, World War II had finally ended.\u00a0 Ruth was only 18 years old.\u00a0 She had just left home and moved to Philadelphia to enroll at the Franklin School of Science and Arts.\u00a0 This was against her father’s … Continue reading “Hopeful Peace after World War II”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,54,50,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-times","category-maternal-ancestors","category-pennsylvania","category-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iSeeAncestors.com\/comm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}