For me Anzac day is a day of remembering, a day of saying thank you. Thank you to all the men and women who fought for their future, for our present, who have given us an amazing gift.

This Anzac day I spent the day with my Nan and my sister Jade, we had fish and chips and apple crumble, we sat and talked about the War, about my Pop. My Nan will be 88 this year in June, if she makes it to her birthday, she is dying. That’s hard to say, and I am right now all choked up once again, but its the honest truth. My Pop died of a heart attack 14 years ago, when I was 11. When we found out a few weeks ago that my Nan won’t be around for much longer I was sitting in a cafe with her and she started telling me the story of how her doctor had walked in with tears in her eyes and told her there was nothing they could do, I broke down at this, my Nanna then says to me with a laugh “oh don’t you start”  she proceeded to say to me “Everyone has a beginning and an end that’s just how it is, I’ll be 88 this June if I make it, I’m old, I have been ready for this for 14 years, I wanted to die when your Pop died but they wouldn’t let me and since then I have seen six new great grandchildren, I am so lucky”. This women is amazing, and I don’t know how I would be feeling if she was not so strong, she passes her strength though to me without a doubt. I have accepted her words of wisdom “everyone has a beginning and an end” and I will be keeping this in mind the day I have to say goodbye to her.  

I am blessed to be able to have these moments with her, soon she will be gone and all I will have are these moments, my memories and these photos. At moments like these in your life you sit back and take it all in, you see how little possessions and money matter, how much love and a happy life are so important. 

ANZAC Day 1942, sixty-eight years ago, my Nanna and Pop were married in Sydney! As the world was in the middle of war and my Pop had been training up north they were told they were not to leave Sydney just in case he got called to leave, they honeymooned in Bondi for a few days before they received a telegram stating that he was to report to the docks to help load the ship as the wharfies were on strike, he was then shipped off to New Guinea for the next 9 months where he fought the Japanese, he was only 21.

As a little girl I don’t ever recall my Pop mentioning the war besides when talking about why he was deaf, which was from the bombs. My favourite memories are those of Saturday lunch every week and my Pop peeling and feeding me fresh prawns, my Nan’s awesome mash, fish pie and apple pie. I miss those Saturdays more than anything.  

I plan on telling more of my Nan’s story with the help of my sister as we embark on this life changing journey. Below are photos taken on ANZAC day, 25th April 2010

 

 

Ode of Rememberance

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

– Laurence Binyon ‘For the Fallen’