1917 - When Dr. Takoda Hardin lay eyes on his sweet Ruby laying on a hospital gurney, he was undone. She was a combat nurse but that had not spared her. He sat in the morgue with her body and asked for pen and paper to compose a letter to his sister, Suzu Little Bird. He occasionally stopped to stroke his wife’s red hair and gaze upon her.
"How pale thou art,” he whispered to her, crying into the crook of his arm, having been warned not to touch her body for fear of contracting the Spanish Flu.
Halito my sister Little Bird,
My sweet Ruby is gone, taken by the purple death. She was sick and waited for me for three weeks here in a French hospital ship in the port of Dieppe and I could not come to her.
My heart is torn, and I fear I shall never recover. I want to mount up on my horse, raise my sword and charge the enemy, even though they did not cause her death. If I had made her stay in Texas, she would still be alive now.
Suzu, I only arrived today and she passed away yesterday. I missed her passing by 12 hours and I am mad with anguish! Will the pain ever subside?
Send Mama and Papa my love and tell them I will see them soon when I bring my wife's body home. Halito to Lark, my brother.
Love, Takoda Bear
After her burial in Houston, Koda returned to Sagebrush, staying with his parents since he and Ruby had never had a home stateside. Koda had one more weeks’ leave before he had to return to the war, to the front line. He was to help the soldiers affected by the chemical warfare, the mustard and chlorine gas. Koda's parents implored him not to go, his mother Addy begging with anguish and tears, but Koda was unmoved, heartbroken and numb.
“Who should go in my place?” he asked his elderly parents, and they had no answer.
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