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Remembering Virginia Mulvaney
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Polly Mann, W A M M
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There was her obituary—in the Pioneer Press. She had died September 4, 2005 at age 81 in a nursing home in Bismarck, North Dakota. But some part of her had died in the late 1960s. I never knew exactly when. My last memory of her was over coffee in her Bandana Square apartment which seemed to reflect her own isolation and loneliness. She was active in WAMM for a year or so in the eighties and would share her poetry with all who expressed interest – poetry that seemed to provide catharsis for the event that haunted her. I saw her off and on for a few years. But the time between visits grew longer and longer until she was gone, with no forwarding address and no telephone number. What I can do for her now is tell her story.
Her son, James, (I didn’t remember the name, but the obituary provided it) had been called to military service during the Vietnam War. He talked to her at length about it, stating he did not want to go, did not believe in killing, would like to resist by going to Canada. “I said, you have to go, what if everybody refused?” she related to me, and I can only imagine his response. But she won and he was inducted.
He went to Vietnam and was one of the 50,000 casualties of the war. What else is there to say? |
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© 2005/2006 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete December 2005/January 2006 Index - click here
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