Reading, MA – An Endicott College graduate is on a mission to learn and write about every World War II veteran in her community. It’s already connecting people who never would have met.
“I did not really consider myself a religious person when I started this project. But I think this project has made me spiritual in many ways,” Autumn Hendrickson explains. Standing in Reading’s Laurel Hill Cemetery, she acknowledges that she often feels surrounded by ghosts.
Hendrickson is researching and writing about every WWII veteran in Reading and North Reading. It is an enormous, emotional undertaking. Nine hundred residents joined the war effort. Thirty-two made the ultimate sacrifice. She hopes that her work will preserve their stories and pique readers’ interest in the important-but less dramatic-aspects of military service.
“The community only goes on because they’re there,” Hendrickson said. “They all contributed. And I think that’s a message that sometimes can get lost. I also hope that, in a way, my project can keep alive some of these individuals who have passed. Because I remember when I started it-when I learned the names of the men who lost their lives, I was shocked that I had never heard their names before. These are people who were part of my community.” [Read more on WBZ]
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