New exhibit to showcase Maine woman’s World War I experiences as a ‘Y’ Girl
Memorabilia from Faith Hinckley's nine months overseas aiding American soldiers will be a featured display at Fairfield's L.C. Bates Museum.
BY DOUG HARLOW MORNING SENTINEL
Faith Hinckley held vigil over the wounded soldier who asked only that she hold his hand tightly until the end.
They were in a pup tent within a military camp housing 20,000 soldiers near St. Nazaire, France. It was the summer of 1918.
Hinckley, serving as an international volunteer during World War I, told the soldier she would write a letter home for him. The soldier told her he had no one at home, not a single relative who would remember him.
She told the dying soldier, whom she knew only as Bill, that he could dictate a letter to her own mother, Harriet, back home in Fairfield, Maine, and that Harriet could be his “borrowed mother.” He dictated two pages of his thoughts and wishes for prayers, picturing his own home as he took his final breath.