A War Heroine In Nursery

 

Anna Etheridge (1839-1913) had been a nurse for her sick father as well as at a common hospital before she started her real career as what's called a "camp follower". That happened when she followed her Union soldier husband as he entered the American Civil War, but when he deserted, she stayed on, and became one of the only 2 women who were given the Kearny Cross. Not being in favor of wars of any kind I ought not praise Anna, but it's obvious from all accounts that she was a dedicated as well as very brave woman who made it her duty to see to it that the wounded soldiers were saved from the battlefield and treated when possible. The soldiers called her "Gentle Annie" and she was held in high esteem by them. 

She was armed with two pistols which she knew how to use, and she had her own horse, but she doesn't seem to have taken part in the battles as anything, but a very dedicated nurse. However, there are reports of her being present on the battlefields, even when the fights were at their fiercest with bullets and shrapnel flying everywhere. I've seen no indications that she herself became wounded, except for a wound in one of her hands, but her bravery as a nurse has been praised by many. The government didn't approve of women in the field, and she, as well as other women, decided to serve on transport ships, but sometimes she had to enter enemy territory to retrieve the wounded. It seems that she had some close calls both before and after this interim in her years of service, but was neither caught nor seriously wounded.  
 

After her first husband deserted she was divorced and free to marry her second husband, James Etheridge. Their marriage ended with the war, but she married once more after meeting her new husband, Corporal Charles Hook, some time afterwards. They stayed married until his death in 1910, and three years later she herself died. At that time she was on an army pension which had been approved by the Congress in 1887.

https://miwf.org/celebrating-women/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame/annie-etheridge/

 

Wikipedia

Short Story By Else Cederborg: "Floating" (Previously published)

Floating

This wasn't the best way to start the day. Everything went on in slow motion and Valerie couldn't make herself move. She just lay there, stuck, flat on her back even when trailing her arms and legs over the white sheets of the bed. The sharp, metallic sounds from nowhere and everywhere blended in with the wallpaper quality of anonymity in this room that wasn't hers, not even her choice. She was brought here and vaguely remembered when they lifted her off the pavement and put her on the stretcher.

"Careful, careful," someone yelled, perhaps the one who had called 911, when he found her, "poor creature, looks like a stroke."

Yeah, she thought with something like a subdued giggle, more like a blow to the head. More like something-out-of-nowhere that made my head spin, my legs fold, and my soul slither down my spine, untying each chakra as it went. When I fell, I was dead, and when someone grabbed my purse and kicked me in the stomach before running off, the pain brought me back to the bleak realities of being robbed and not being able to move.

She had a feeling that she ought to be grateful for that revival, but somehow she couldn't and later on, when those two came to visit her, lying there, she even regretted having got hold of her chakras and survived.

Over and over she thought of their visit and she kept repeating one sentence that had harbored her mind: Were those people really her close relatives? The one in black and purple looked nightmarish, like a ghoul or a vampire, and she even kissed her and called her "My dear". The other one, so stiff in her facial features that they almost creaked when they were set into movement with something that vaguely resembled a smile, called her "Mom". 

 When Valerie thought of her she was appalled: This creaky one came from ME? Then what was - or am - I to have produced anything like that robotic creature?

This thought made her spin in the white room with all the instruments, the syringes by the bed, and all those the people in white whipping in and out the door. How did that happen in my world of wavering colors, sounds like deep sea murmurings and floatings in and out of flowery realms? Not me, no, not the one without any anchors in the world of necessity. All that was left on that pavement and now brought back as a rerun of old movies, something in black and white that was so far back in the past that it felt quite creepy as all the actors were gone long ago.

Still, that stiff face did hurt, only she didn't know why.

They talked of chances, life expectancies, of treatments, hopelessness and of insurances. The discussion even got heated, stiff-face cracked and the word "money" escaped those thin, thin lips, but black-and-purple said "hope". Valerie knew that meant new syringes, new treatments and new floatings somewhere out of their reach and into that world of colors and sounds, anchored by chakras.

 

Else Cederborg

All Rights Reserved  

 

Blackmailing By Death Threats

 

She wants to jump - or so she says - but no, the police will have none of that

To end up dead isn't all that that unusual. Actually, that's what we are supposed to do sooner or later no matter what: At one point the planet Earth wants to shake off those living organisms that aren't young and
fertile anymore. However, some chose not to wait for that day, but hasten towards it. Knowing that is the same as knowing that those threats of suicide that some of us have experienced from friends or relatives may turn into a reality. 

Evelyn McHale leapt to her death in 1947 when she jumped from The Empire State Building

Yes, some really do seek this premature ending whether it's because they find everything in life too difficult, too burdensome or not worthwhile. Others may seek death, more or less in mock, or to blackmail someone to do something this person doesn't want to do. We may not believe that Ms
X, who threatens to kill herself once in a while, will ever do so, but on the other hand, she MIGHT and that would lead to boosts of sorrow and regrets in us that we want to elude as best we can. According to Ms X the only way to do so is to do what she wants us to do and that may not be what we ourselves want to engage in.

 

Her blackmailing - and blackmail it is - may have started out as a mock-threat, but ended up being genuine. She really kills herself and that situation is very difficult for the person who was blackmailed, especially if he or she can't check up on the blackmailer. Many thoughts and fears rush through the mind of the victim of the blackmailer. Also a certain amount of annoyance as this shouldn't happen: It's not fair and it doesn't change so very much as what has been obtained through blackmail isn't the same as what was given freely. Besides being dead the blackmailer doesn't even see how his or her exploits as a blackmailer ended up. 

The Helping Hand And Its Limitations

 

For some time I've had the non-pleasure of needing a hand now and then, simply because some everyday actions don't work out as they should and how they did some time ago. It's annoying because one of the very big pleasures of life is to be able to do what's needed when it's needed. Of course it's nice that most people do lend me that needed hand. Actually, it's touching, and I appreciate it, but I would prefer that it wasn't needed, and that I could just go on as usual.

However, I think that all situations - good or bad - may further a lesson, something to teach us humans something important. One lesson for me has been the realization that one shouldn't demand too much of helpful people. Actually, one should try to one's needs before they turn into DEMANDS which may happen quite soon as it's so much easier to ask someone to do something than to try doing it oneself ....

Ups And Downs In The Life of "The "Golden Boy", Andrew

 

The irony of life with its ups and downs is something most of us have to endure, but some people represent certain aspects of this system in a more obvious manner. One of these people is The former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. He is supposed to have been the favorite son of the late queen Elizabeth II, and he is the one of her four children who resembles her the most in looks. Born in 1960 as the second son and third child of the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, he was privileged from the very beginning of life, so he may have come to think that privileges of all kinds were his birthright that couldn't be disputed by anybody. Also, his originally good looks and charm may have given him an erroneous idea of his own importance to many different people who wooed him both as a prince and as a handsome guy.  

I seem to remember his older brother, King Charles III, saying something long ago about his younger brother being "handsome as a movie star" (which he himself never was) so maybe there was some envy at an early age? Anyway, Andrew gained a certain reputation of being an extrovert, sporty, charming and simply dashing man. He was the darling of women who fell for his charm, good looks and/or royal title. 

 

Besides, in the Falklands War (1982) he gained another kind of a positive reputation, namely as a war hero after serving as a helicopter pilot in the Navy. However, early on one of his nicknames, namely "Randy Andy", somehow was what came to sum up his life and whole being in the eye of the public. 

He dated many women, and one of his best known affairs was with the American photographer and actress Kathleen Norris "Koo" Stark. She was known for her role in "Star Wars: A New Hope" and films like "Emily" and "Electric Dreams" before she became a renowned portrait photographer. I don't know why she wasn't "wife material" like Sarah Ferguson whom he married in 1986, but that doesn't seem to have been considered by either of them. 

Both Fergie and Andrew were unfaithful - or simply led their own "swinger-life". When they were divorced they kept living together, both caring for their two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. As to Sarah she has been working for some cancer charities, and founded "Children in Crisis" and "Sarah's Trust". However, her odd friendship with Jeffrey Epstein lost her the trust of several charities. 

By the way, one of the very strange parts of that friendship is that this American pedophile trafficker seems to have been paying her money, either as loans or wages: It isn't quite clear what their relationship was, but it's obvious that they in some respects were quite close.

In 2014 a young woman, Virginia Giuffre, accused Andrew of having abused her when she was a 17 year old sex-trafficked victim of the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell-organisation. Andrew denied even having met Virginia and seemed much more worried about her having said that he had a "strange odor" and sweated much more than normal. In an interview he came to reveal that he found those allegations that ruined his image of being a "Prince Charming" much more alarming than what happened to the sex-trafficked Virginia. His total lack of empathy was quite unsettling and have cost him a lot of sympathy in England as well as elsewhere.

I'm not sure when this particular photo was taken, but having seen several like it - and it is from a late time period - it seems to me that he started to look unhappy and worried quite some time before his brother, King Charles III, stripped him of all of his royal titles, namely in 2025. The reason for the shift in looks may be that the infamous doings of Epstein and the names of his associates/customers were brought into focus. Not only tRump, but e.g. also Andrew were mentioned. Several unpleasant photos were published, and there were rumors of violent sex leading to murder.

However, when he was arrested in February 2026 it wasn't for pedophile misdemeanors, but for "suspicion of misconduct in public office". It seems that he may have shared sensitive government information with the criminal Jeffrey Epstein. 

When he was taken away by the police, he looked like he had had the floor removed under his feet without being prepared for the shock. It must have been a strange experience for this former darling of Brits to be treated like a common criminal and not having the Royal privileges that would make it possible for him to do something about it. He always struck me as being arrogant, and I didn't like his attitude in the interview, but this photo made me feel his situation as something "commonly felt" by humans of all kinds of social standing, and I felt sorry for him. Also, I feel sorry for his daughters, but not yet for his ex-wife, Fergie, because she did have some weird financial ties with Epstein.

The Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie with their mother, Sarah

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxezdv335o

https://people.com/ex-prince-andrew-dragging-heels-about-leaving-wood-farm-11943571

 

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ylk9r336zo 

 

 

https://www.pbs.org › newshour › world › what-to-kno... 

 

 

Wikipedia 

Poem by Else Cederborg: "Echoes"

 

 

Echoes

Echoes go so well with lives

with love, with fates

even with humanities

no more heavyhanded clue than an echo

shall - shall not

love - love not

Love to the drums of doom

success - failure, success - failure

all of it echoes

been there, done that

too old to un-remember former loves

those memories cost heavy duties

all of them love-killers

ALL rights reserved

© EC

 

The Split Body

 

This picture sort of comments itself, but for those who simply don't get it, I shall make it easy: The picture is about how many women feel about their situation in a patriarchy. When I (re-)found it I came to think of tRump and his infatuation with someone not being either of his three wives. Actually, she was a fellow politician from another country, blond, pretty and charmingly "petite". When he complimented her, he obviously didn't see her as the politician, she was - i.e. his equal - but his wet dream of a woman. She certainly, wasn't one of those "nasty" ones who challenges his image of himself as the one who has a right to demand a certain behavior from the female sex. The above picture says it all when it comes to this attitude: You are a woman, and you are nothing but - or first and foremost - the embodiment of my needs which are centered upon certain of your body parts. This attitude is so old, and so integrated into the common male biased ideology that even some women may see it as "complimentary". That is, if they have fallen prey to this ideology which gives them the possibility of letting themselves be "complimented into oblivion: They are not, what they are, but what they have been told they are.