To the Editor:

Re “Old Enough Now to Ask How Dad Died at War” (front page, Oct. 21):

Only recently I got the last few memorabilia from my father, who was killed in World War II as he defended his country (France) from the German invasion. My mother had put his medals, condolence letters and the obituary announcement from newspapers in a cookie box, but among all of these is a tin soldier wrapped in tissue paper on which my mother had written “soldier that Alain” (my brother) “put in Daddy’s pocket when he went to war.”

On Nov. 19, 1944, I was 8 months old, not old enough to ask how Dad died at war, leaving a wife and three very young children behind. I asked my mom many questions just like young CamerynLee Orlowski, who lost her father in Iraq and was featured in your article.

I think of my father every day. I do not stare at the sky anymore in search of a cloud that looks like a kepi (French Army headgear) as I used to do as a little girl hoping to connect with my father; instead, when things get rough I hold the tiny tin soldier.

I am 63, and tears from the void in my life are still coming. My heart goes to all the children who lost a parent in the Iraq war. A longtime activist for justice and peace, I continue to speak against this unjust war and do all I can so no more young children will have to attend and/or to learn of a funeral of their loved one.

 Monique Frugier

Ardmore, Pa., Oct. 21, 2007