the inevitable day arrived before any of the garland's knew it. alby was to leave for his deployment to france. florence couldn't bare to see off her eldest son, not knowing when he'd return. it could be months or years or maybe even... she couldn't even let herself think of the possibility of losing her son.

cecil, however, was jealous to see his brother off on his new adventure. they had never left henford their entire lives. it was all they knew and he longed to follow his brother into uncharted grounds, despite the danger. now he could only wait and count down the days until he was allowed to enlist himself.

in the harris household, ada also had to see her husband off to war. she was devastated their young family was already being forced apart. it was just her and her little eleanor now.

closed for: @maragoransson​ location: spotlight cinema time: shortly after dark

“I used to work in a movie theater, you know,” Theo started, holding the door to the cinema open for Mara. “My parents wanted me to get a job in high school. To build character, I suppose. Not sure how well it worked,” they joked, following closely behind. The warmth of the movie theater was welcome after the brisk chill of outside - December was pulling no punches when it came to the weather. Theo delicately unwrapped the handknit scarf from around her neck, undoing the buttons on her coat and staring around the lobby with a faint hint of cheer. Everything was well-decorated, in that Alby way Theo had come to expect - glittering garlands of tinsel reflected the lights from a detailed display near the front door. It smelled of fake butter and sugar and something else, an intangible sort of smell that seemed to linger in all movie theaters, even the ones back home. “Did you have any bad high school jobs?”

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portraits of joseph garland jr. (alby) in uniform before his deployment (1914)

since learning about the war, alby had only been anticipating one thing. on that cold muddy fall morning his heart stopped in his chest when he read his name printed on the envelope.

recent photographs of the garland household- joseph jr and florence

as florence had to focus more of her time on the still infant alby, ada began to feel overlooked by her mother. she would follow florence everywhere hoping for an extra moment with her, making her parents refer to her as her mother's little shadow.

alby's birthday pt. 1

alby's birthday arrived faster than expected and the family returned to the pub to celebrate. the birthday boy spent most of the night distracted joking with his best mates don and howard, not noticing chloé morel was hoping for a dance.

meanwhile across the room...

ada delivered her very exciting news.

"i'm pregnant," she excitedly shrieked, elated to finally tell her mother she was to have her first grandchild.

estee's birthday (pt. 2)

as the party continued inside, alby and gerogia slipped outside for a quiet moment alone. his mother allowed each of the siblings to invite a guest for the party and was elated when georgia said yes.

every time they were together, he felt the world at peace. he had hoped that once he was old enough and had enough money, he would propose to her and they could have a happy life together. all those young hopes were dashed in just an instant by two simple sentences.

"we're to move away. mother and father think that moving to brietchester would do us well," georgia lamented, not wanting to go with them, but knowing she had to.

"oh," her words had caught alby off guard. they hadn't even talked about marriage. was he so naive to think she'd even want to marry him?

"i'll write you as soon as we get there," she chimmed back. "i've never been to the big city. i'll want to tell you all about it."

those words brought a warm but bitter smile to alby's face. even if their future wasn't what he expected, he would cherish all her letters. the pair embraced once more, not knowing if they would see each other again, but hoping they would somehow find their way back to each other.

the children knew their father was sick, but florence hadn't told them he had the spring flu. she didn't want them to worry, to be able to live their lives somewhat normally for only a bit longer before they had to know.

they still went to school. they still invited their friends over. but florence didn't know how much longer she could keep the facade up. he wasn't getting any better and she didn't know what else she could do.

portraits of the garland boys, alby and cecil

on an unexpected evening, florence went into labor and welcomed her first son. he was named joseph albert garland jr after his father, but would be known as alby to the family.

alby couldn't believe his luck when he arrived for bootcamp to see he was in the same infantry as one of his closest friends, don. ever since they were children, they dreamed of going on wild adventures together. despite the turmoil of bootcamp, they at least had each other.

despite alby returning home from the pub so late, he found cecil still working on some homework. cecil might not have been at good at school as estee and alby, but he was grateful to have siblings who were so happy to help him.

meanwhile, alby admired his younger brother's tenacity to learn and get better at anything he set his mind to. being the oldest, most of alby's life had been decided for him and he went along for it. cecil though, he knew, was meant for far greater.

that afternoon the garland's were happy to finally meet the new member to the family, little eleanor harris.

florence stared at a loss for words as she looked upon her first grandchild. it was almost like she had been transported 19 years ago and she was holding ada as a baby again.

as alby finished his evening at the pub, he picked up a copy of that day's paper. before he even had the chance to rest after a night of work, he was reawoken when he read the front page headline.

GERMANY DECLARES WAR: ALL EUROPE IS IN ARMS