Glen Smith's Diary (Page 60)

//Panel 1//
Elizabeth's Narration:
People always want happiness over unhappiness, wealth over poverty, domination over subordination...and so
//Panel 2//
Elizabeth's Narration:
On the day Margrid turned seven, Germany invaded Poland.
//Panel 3//
Elizabeth:
Are you going off to war, Pierre?
Pierre:
I'm not going. I'm a teacher, Mother.
//Panel 4//
Elizabeth:
What do you teach at school?
Pierre:
Mathematics. Arithmetic, Axioms, Law and Geometry.
//Panel 5//
Elizabeth:
If I became a teacher, I would want to teach history.
//Panel 6//
Pierre (Jr):
If I don't go, who will protect Mama, Grandma and my little sisters!
//Panel 7//
Pierre (Jr):
I am the only boy in the Hessen family!
//Panel 8//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Why can't we hold onto our happiness?
Even for just a little while longer…
//Panel 9//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Time goes by, people live and die, singing a song of the flow of history
//Panel 10//
Elizabeth's Narration:
Even for just a little while longer…

Elizabeth already has a foreshadowing of the fate of her grandson, or at least a highly fateful view of the war ahead. It is notable that her own personal conflict (being an Englishwoman) is never brought up. But she would suffer loss no matter which side she were to take up, because she is a mother, a grandmother and a human being.

In Panel 3, the senior Pierre refers to Elizabeth as "Grandma" in the original text. I don't know about the German tradition, but this is typical in Japan. People refer to each other from the perspective of the youngest family members for some reason. So once kids are born the spouses will almost always call each other "Mother" and "Father." Then when they become grandparents, it's "Grandma" and "Grandpa," and their adult children will begin calling them that too. I don't know why this is, but I have to put up a fight to keep my husband from calling me "Mom"! When my daughter has children, I have to stop him from calling me "Grandma"!