As some of you may know my first job while I was at school and while I was studying was at the Palmerston North RSA. While working there I had the pleasure of meeting, talking and getting to know some of our local returned serviceman and their families.
Some of them talked about the war, some didn't. Some told jolly stories of their lives as children and some spoke of poverty and sadness.
ANZAC day was obviously the busiest day of the year, everyone in for breakfast before the service, returned serviceman and current serviceman and their families. Mostly in high spirits but some of them looking very somber and deep in thought, perhaps thinking of a fallen brother.
Some of my family members have served great uncles and great grandfathers but my deepest connection with ANZAC is from my time working at the RSA, so many surrogate grandparents I gained while I worked their. I have so much respect for those men and women seeing them dancing together and pulling out a chairs for their wife even after 60 years of marriage. I now know why today's youth can annoy them so much they really did grow up in a different time.
To think some of them went to war as children as 15-16 year olds full of gusto and the feeling of being invincible as all teenage boys do! To think of those mothers who waved their sons off to war not knowing when or if they would be back. To the wives who were left to hold the fort while their husbands went to war.
I know current military families and it isn't just the person who serves that makes the sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of the whole family. It isn't just a job like you and I have it is a way of life that you and I have no idea what it is like to experience.
So to our fallen serviceman I have you in my thoughts and I will remember the ultimate sacrifice you made and to our current servicemen and women I will remember the sacrifice you and your families continue to make. I hope for peace one day so that my daughter won't have to.
Robin xx
Some of them talked about the war, some didn't. Some told jolly stories of their lives as children and some spoke of poverty and sadness.
ANZAC day was obviously the busiest day of the year, everyone in for breakfast before the service, returned serviceman and current serviceman and their families. Mostly in high spirits but some of them looking very somber and deep in thought, perhaps thinking of a fallen brother.
Some of my family members have served great uncles and great grandfathers but my deepest connection with ANZAC is from my time working at the RSA, so many surrogate grandparents I gained while I worked their. I have so much respect for those men and women seeing them dancing together and pulling out a chairs for their wife even after 60 years of marriage. I now know why today's youth can annoy them so much they really did grow up in a different time.
To think some of them went to war as children as 15-16 year olds full of gusto and the feeling of being invincible as all teenage boys do! To think of those mothers who waved their sons off to war not knowing when or if they would be back. To the wives who were left to hold the fort while their husbands went to war.
I know current military families and it isn't just the person who serves that makes the sacrifice. It is a sacrifice of the whole family. It isn't just a job like you and I have it is a way of life that you and I have no idea what it is like to experience.
So to our fallen serviceman I have you in my thoughts and I will remember the ultimate sacrifice you made and to our current servicemen and women I will remember the sacrifice you and your families continue to make. I hope for peace one day so that my daughter won't have to.
Robin xx
When I was a student, I spent some time volunteering in the military section of the Derby Museum in the UK, I had to transcribe the hand written records from the first world war, mostly the casualty records. I always think of those hundreds of men who were killed or injured on Anzac day and November 11th
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