This year we attended the Longford service for the first time. It was a different experience to what I was used to. As part of the service the names of the recently diseased veterans from the local community were read out. I thought this was a wonderful personalised touch to the service.
I was impressed with a young man who spoke at the service. Jordan Brazendale was represented Cressy District High School, and I have to say that he did an amazing job. I wish I could speak in public as confidently as him. I was certain that he would be my hero of the day.
When I returned home, I noticed that the dawn service was being shown on the TV. I had never watched the service before, so I was deeply engaged with the program. As part of the program members of the Turkish military read a tribute that was written by Mustafa Kemal, the commander of the 19th Division of the Turkish army. This is what he wrote;
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well (Australian War Memorial).
I had a realisation and a picture in my mind of the impact that war has on mothers. These poor mothers that watched their young sons head off to war, in some cases never to return. How hard it must have been for these mothers. You may know the story of James Charles (Jim) Martin (1901–1915) a 14 year old boy who convinced, rather, blackmailed his parents in to letting him go to war, never to return. He died just 9 months in to his service of ill health. How tormenting it must have been for his family.
Mothers are amazing people, who endure so much for the welfare of their families and their countries. I am grateful for my mother, and the mothers of those who have fought for the freedom and pleasures that I endure today.
I was friend with a girl in Colorado,whose ancestry was Turkish. Her Father was very excited she knew an Australia. "as they were in My Country during the war" we are regarded very highly in Turkey. She was and is still my friend,due to those relationships formed all those years ago.
ReplyDeleteI am grateful none of my sons had to experience war as it is never the answer.
But I am proud of my sons being good upstanding men in this Blessed Country.