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What an incredible story:

The last veteran of World War I was a waitress, and for 90 years no one knew her name.

Florence Green, a member of Britain’s Royal Air Force who was afraid of flying, died in England on Saturday, two weeks shy of her 111th birthday. She was believed to have been the war’s last living veteran — the last anywhere of the tens of millions who served.

With the death in May of Claude Stanley Choules, an Englishman who served aboard a Royal Navy battleship, Mrs. Green became the last known person, male or female, to have served in the war on either side.

Though she was aware of her historical position as the war's last veteran, Mrs. Green was philosophical about the war itself, one of the defining events of modern history, in which more than 20 million people died.

"It seems," she remarked to The Independent last year, on the occasion of her 110th birthday, "like such a long time ago now."

A long time ago, indeed...when the world was a much bloodier place, that's for sure:

But though she was aware of her historical position as the war's last veteran, Mrs. Green was philosophical about the war itself, one of the defining events of modern history, in which more than 20 million people died.

Imagine that number: 20 million.

And yet that was only 1/3 the number of humans killed in World War II: 60 million.

SIXTY MILLION DEATHS!

It's just staggering that 80 million humans were killed between 1915 and 1945. Staggering.

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