Uncle Joe

Joseph Sicotte, son of Thomas and Marie Guertin Sicotte.
Ed remembers:
Uncle Joe was about 39 years old when he passed away in 1931. I would have been about 7 yrs., old at the time of his death. As I heard it from my aunts, he was gassed in France during the first world war. (Various gases were used in the First World War. Mustard gas and Phosgene were two of those gases. Mustard gas was a vesicant in that it burned the skin and organs whereas Phosgene was more insidious in that it took longer to take effect, but was perhaps more lethal than many other gases. About 85% of 100,000 gas fatalities in that war were due to Phosgene which supposedly smelled like new mown hay.) I don't think he was well after that. He died in a military or veteran's hospital in Rutland presumably from complications of the gassing. I don't know if that's Rutland, VT, or Rutland, Massachusetts.

I believe Adriel, his wife, was of English extraction who came from either New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, Canada, to which she returned after his death.

I get the impression that he was taciturn. The aunts told the story that once he was sitting on a porch or some such place when the mail man came along and asked him how he was. His reply, whether to be humorous or not, was "what do you care?" It may indicate a bit of dry wit because he was supposed to be a gentle and kind person.

I recall that I saw him laid out in a casket in the small house in the rear at 17 Central Street, Waltham, and that one of my aunts, probably Alma, had me touch his forehead and I was somewhat shocked at how hard and cold it was. Then............while I was standing outside the house a marching contingent of soldiers came to escort his body to the church and possibly to the cemetery. They played taps on the bugle and I turned to my aunt and either made a comment or asked if they were trying to wake him up. Strange how these memories stay with me. There were two other uncles (brothers) from the Sicotte family in that war, Fred & Leo. Fred was sent to France and I was told that he was with an artillery outfit that saw action. Leo, being the youngest, and having entered service later than the other two, was sent to an army camp in the South and apparently was there when the war ended.
During that war it was customary for some of the citizens of a city or town to gather and stop in front of any home that had a star displayed in a window to indicate a member of the family in the service. They would pay their respects by singing, etc. When they came to the Sicotte home on Central Street and saw three stars in the window a huge cheer and applause broke out, according to my aunts.