Today is ANZAC Day in Australia & New Zealand - the day we all set aside some time to remember those who fought & still fight for Australia. Today I got a very special ANZAC Day surprise.
My Grandfather served in the Army in WW2. He spent the war in Papua New Guinea & surrounds, deploying in mid-1942 & spending several years there. He left behind a wife & a new baby son - my father. Although he didn't see combat, the war was tough on grandad. He saw some terrible things & missed some of the crucial bonding years with his new boy. I often heard that he was never quite the same when he came home.
Grandad died almost 25 years ago, and Nana almost a decade ago. Most of what remained at the house ended up with an aunty. She moved house recently, and in going few the boxes left over from the old house found something I had never seen before - letters from my Grandad written during the war.
It is eerie to read the words of a person who no longer really existed when I was alive. My grandfather in his 50s was a different man in a different world by then. Most of it is just chit chat - talking about what Nana was doing & about people they knew. it is mostly mundane, yet terribly moving. I suppose it is the ordinary that you miss the most when it is not there.
What moved me most, however, is Grandad asking after his new son. Nana sent him a photo in one of her letters, and he talks about making a little frame for it. Even then he was good with his hands (I have several coffee tables he made as a hobby - they could survive a direct hit from a bomb). It is clear even from the little he writes just how much he misses his family and it is sad to think of him separated from them for so long.
I don't know if my Dad ever read the letters, he has been gone for a long time. I wish I could ask him. I hope he did.
Quite a gift on ANZAC day.
My Grandfather served in the Army in WW2. He spent the war in Papua New Guinea & surrounds, deploying in mid-1942 & spending several years there. He left behind a wife & a new baby son - my father. Although he didn't see combat, the war was tough on grandad. He saw some terrible things & missed some of the crucial bonding years with his new boy. I often heard that he was never quite the same when he came home.
Grandad died almost 25 years ago, and Nana almost a decade ago. Most of what remained at the house ended up with an aunty. She moved house recently, and in going few the boxes left over from the old house found something I had never seen before - letters from my Grandad written during the war.
It is eerie to read the words of a person who no longer really existed when I was alive. My grandfather in his 50s was a different man in a different world by then. Most of it is just chit chat - talking about what Nana was doing & about people they knew. it is mostly mundane, yet terribly moving. I suppose it is the ordinary that you miss the most when it is not there.
What moved me most, however, is Grandad asking after his new son. Nana sent him a photo in one of her letters, and he talks about making a little frame for it. Even then he was good with his hands (I have several coffee tables he made as a hobby - they could survive a direct hit from a bomb). It is clear even from the little he writes just how much he misses his family and it is sad to think of him separated from them for so long.
I don't know if my Dad ever read the letters, he has been gone for a long time. I wish I could ask him. I hope he did.
Quite a gift on ANZAC day.
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