“I thought about what you said on the first transport we flew together, about losing your man at Pearl Harbor. It’s hard to get past something like that. It happened to me with Belinda. By now, most of us have lost someone we cared about, or loved, or wanted to marry, or were married to, or a sibling, or a friend. No one escapes it entirely, but you can’t let it stop you from living. Their destiny happened the way it was meant to, but we still have ours to live. We’re all young. One day the war will be over, and we’ll have our futures back, if we live through it. Don’t spend the rest of your life or too many years mourning, Liz. It’s not my place to say that to you, but I say it as a friend. I’ve been through it too. I finally realized that Belinda wouldn’t have wanted me to mourn her forever. She wasn’t that kind of person. She was full of life. Maybe your man was too.”

“He was,” she confirmed, thinking about Will.

“Then you have to go on and live fully. What happened to them wasn’t fair. But one day someone will come along who was meant to be with you, and you’ll start over again.” She still couldn’t imagine it, even more than two years later. But she knew Ed meant well. She smiled. She loved listening to his soft Irish brogue. He sounded so gentle when he comforted the patients, and now he was comforting her.

He left the pub a few minutes later, and the other girls questioned her about him.

“He’s got a crush on you,” Louise said to her, and Lizzie denied it.

“No he doesn’t. He’s just friendly.”

They hooted at her, and she blushed. “I swear to you, he’s not after me. Pru and her other corpsman say he has a million girlfriends.”

“Until he finds the right one,” Alex said, grinning at her. Emma laughed too.