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.”