Emma said afterwards that the Fates seemed to have saved the worst for last for them. Three weeks after Pru’s plane was shot down with her crew, Audrey went out on a mission in November, and her plane was shot down too. Everyone on the flight was lost, this time with twenty-four wounded men on board that they had just picked up. The plane exploded midair. Twenty-nine souls were lost. Lizzie floated around the dormitory like a ghost, unable to believe what had happened. This time, Ed consoled her, as she had him three weeks before when Pru died. And ironically, it happened on Thanksgiving Day. She had lost her older brother, the man she loved, and her best friend to the war by then. It was a crushing blow. The whole unit mourned both women. Like Pru, Audrey was such a good person, always giving to others and doing for them. Her whole life had been a gift to someone else, first to her mother, then her patients, to Lizzie as a friend, and to her fellow nurses.
Unlike Pru, who had a family, Audrey had no one to mourn her. She had no family left. Her parents were gone, her brother had been killed in the war. There were only her friends and the nurses she had worked with. They hadn’t had a recent casualty in the Women’s Flying Corps until Pru and Audrey so close together, just weeks apart. Their deaths had cost the unit, and everyone who knew and loved them, dearly.
There was some talk about a commemorative headstone in the cemetery they used on the base, since there were no remains. With Ed’s encouragement, Lizzie went to see their commanding officer to explain Audrey’s heritage, and that her parents and brother and grandfather were buried at the cemetery of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and Audrey should have a headstone there. The air forces agreed to undertake the arrangements, and pay for it if necessary, and to notify the cemetery in Annapolis, since she was from a distinguished naval family, and Audrey had distinguished herself in combat.
Speaking to the commanding officer made Lizzie wonder what Audrey’s financial situation had been. She had never thought of it before, but she knew she had kept her parents’ house and it had stood empty and closed up since she’d enlisted in the Army Air Forces. She had no idea what would happen to the house in a case like this. She spoke to Ed about it, and he didn’t know either. He smiled gently at Lizzie, who was glad she’d told the CO about the cemetery in Annapolis. The CO had told her that Audrey would be awarded a medal for distinguished service posthumously. It could be put on display at the cemetery or incorporated in the headstone. The ceremony and the medal would come later, and she was sure the Americans would give Audrey a medal as well. It was small consolation but it was something. Audrey’s service to her country should never be forgotten. Lizzie knew she would love and remember her forever. It saddened Lizzie to realize that Audrey’s whole family was gone now, and Audrey too.
When she talked to Ed about Audrey’s house in Maryland, and what would happen to it now with no one left, he smiled wryly. “I’m not the one to consult about that. No one in my family has ever inherited money, or anything, or had a penny. I don’t know what happens in a case like that.”
A month later, a few days before Christmas, Lizzie found out. She was packing a few more of Audrey’s things that she’d found in the bottom drawer of a chest in their room, and came upon an envelope that said only “To Whom It May Concern” on it in Audrey’s handwriting. She hesitated, and then opened it, since there was no one to send it to. It was a handwritten will Audrey had written when they came to England and started flying missions. She acknowledged that it was wartime, and her job as an air evac transport nurse was dangerous. She referred to a bank account at a bank in Maryland and her family house in Annapolis, which were all she had of some value. Lizzie’s eyes widened as she read the letter. She had left it all to her beloved friend Elizabeth Hatton, whom she said was like a sister to her, and whom she wanted to have whatever her worldly possessions were at the time of her death. The house would have considerable value. It was in a solid residential neighborhood, and the money was what her mother had left Audrey when she died. She had spent none of it. She had told Lizzie that she didn’t want to move back to Annapolis after the war. It would make her too sad with everyone gone. She had talked about moving to New York, or Boston if Lizzie returned there. But the value of what she had left would make a difference to Lizzie now, and to Ed.
There was a footnote on the letter, which said that she had sent a copy of her will to her bank, to handle everything in the event of her death.
Lizzie put on a warm jacket and hurried to Ed’s barracks. He had just come in from the pub with a few of his friends, and he came downstairs to talk to Lizzie.
“Is something wrong?”
She showed him the letter and he read it and looked at her. “Wow, Liz, that’s amazing. Generous to the end. She loved you.” He had never doubted it, and he was glad for Lizzie. It sounded like a nice nest egg, from what Lizzie described of the house.
“Do you realize what this is?”
“Yes, a house and a nice bank account. Do you want to live in Annapolis?” He wasn’t sure where it was. It was a long way from Dublin, in any case.
“No. Audrey didn’t either, after the war. It’s a nice chunk of money. I’ll sell the house. This is medical school for both of us,” she said, beaming at him. “I won’t need my father’s permission now. I can pay for it myself.” He smiled at her and gave her a hug.
“That’s great, but I can’t take that from you, Liz. She left it to you, not to both of us. I’ll see what’s available for veterans in Ireland after the war.”
“I want you to come home with me,” she said. He had thought of it too. He was going to ask his cousin about how complicated it would be to emigrate to Boston, and if his cousin would sponsor him.
“Let’s make sure we’re both around to do that,” Ed said seriously. The deaths of Pru and Audrey had shaken all of them, and were a brutal reminder of the dangers they faced every day. It was going to be a sad Christmas this year, without them. “Maybe my cousin can help me get whatever papers I’d need to move to Boston,” he said, and if for some reason Lizzie didn’t survive, he wouldn’t want to go to Boston. They had already agreed that they didn’t want to make plans before the war ended. They were afraid it would be bad luck for either or both of them. Many others felt as they did and refused to discuss the future.
“If I go back to Boston, I want you to come too,” she said firmly. “We could go to medical school together. We’ll both be veterans. And now we have the money to pay for it, thanks to Audrey.” It was an incredible gift. She was beaming as she said it.
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves here,” he interrupted her. “Let’s get this damn war over and done and dusted, and then we’ll make plans. Or are you proposing to me right now?” he teased her. He had thought about it himself, but superstition got the best of him every time.