Letter to a grieving mother
"God loves you best, for His cross is definitely his gift to his chosen friends."
Dear Friends,
Stuart, Florida, is home to the Road to Victory Military Museum. This small museum, staffed by volunteers, holds an original letter which contains perhaps the most noble consolation in all of Christendom. The letter is addressed to the mother of a fallen soldier; it tells tell how her 22-year-old son, Staff Sgt. Joseph L. Smitrus, suffered and died after he was captured by German soldiers toward the end of World War II.
The author’s words of consolation are these:
I am convinced that God loves you best, for the Cross is definitely His gift to His chosen friends. You and your family must be very dear to Him and possess what we do not—for He has called upon you to help Him bear His Cross personally.
I wish to extend this consolation to the families in Texas who are grieving their children lost in the recent floods. Indeed, God loves you best.
I don’t know the author of the letter. It was typed on both sides of a single sheet of paper, and the back side is not visible as it’s displayed. The next time I’m there, I hope to persuade a volunteer to open the display and allow me to see the rest of the letter.
I have faithfully reproduced the first page of the letter below my signature.
On the Road to Victory,
Jennifer Hay
Jennifer.Hay@KnoxvilleNobility.com
865.804.9721
2025 Running Total: $292.39 donated by KN readers to East Tennessee’s mobile sonogram van.
MERCY HOSPITAL
2537 Prairie Avenue
Chicago, Ill.
My dear Mrs. Smitrus:
When I first wrote to you several months ago, I little dreamed that I should be called upon to inform you of the fate of your dear son, Joseph. With our own Flier surely miraculously returned to us (though wounded and horribly shaken) I feel cruel in breaking this news to you. I am convinced that God loves you best, for the cross is definitely His gift to His chosen friends. You and your family must be very dear to Him and possess what we do not—for He has called upon you to help Him bear His Cross personally.
One of the very first questions, in fact the first, I asked my brother was about your son. His eyes filled and he said: “Smitty didn’t make it.” Then he set his jaw and told us the story briefly.
As you know for all you’ve heard and read, the boys were not only shot at as they parachuted down, but were taken by German soldiers awaiting them. They took their warm clothing and made them work on the railroads, dig graves, etc. They were moved—mostly on foot, sometimes in filthy box cars—almost constantly from one prison camp to another, often marching in deep snow. Many suffered from exposure and starvation and died along the way. Your son contracted pneumonia. When he could no longer walk, my brother and a few others pulled him on a sled hoping to get First Aid somewhere for him. It seems there was none.
Joseph succumbed and his comrades laid him to rest along the line of march. Like many of them, he was not wearing his “dog tags”, and as they always fondly called him “Smitty”, they thus marked his grave. Dodd said he feels reasonably sure that no one else who survived knew who “Smitty” was—consequently since he wore no identification, it is not likely that the Government will be in a position to give you any information.
My brother will write to you because there are many details he can supply which will I know be a consolation to you. I’m sure you realize that he is still too badly shocked from the whole ordeal to re-live it.
He did not know that Capt. Anstey had survived until I showed him Mrs. Anstey’s letters. He said Sgt. Parker was all right—incidentally he has a Texas address for him. He seemed convinced that Lt. Wiethorn had not survived. He promised to write to these persons.
Your son had worked with my brother for a year and he was quite fond of him. He repeated over and over again what a genuinely good lad he was—you have no doubt as to where
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Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.