Today is Anzac Day. My dad always used to march in the parade, when he was younger, and then go to the pub and have a few drinks with his mates. This is a picture of him, taken in his army uniform in 1942. He served in the Australian army in Papua New Guinea, but he didn’t talk very much about it. He was in an engineering corps, so I don’t think he fought in the front line, but maybe memories of war are such that people sometimes lose them, to avoid the pain. They also say that returned soldiers often don’t talk about their experiences with anyone, except their army buddies, because if you weren’t there, you just couldn’t understand.
Anyway, I won’t have the chance to find out any more about my father’s war experiences, because he passed away last year, on Sept 15th. I made a mosaic cross to put on his grave, and on it I put this picture of him, looking young and handsome, in his army uniform. I thought, if it were me, I would rather have people remember me like this, rather than old and frail and stooped.
Around his picture, printed on a ceramic disk, I put the rising sun, which is the symbol of the Australian Army. When my brother was here from France, in November, our little family walked to the cemetery on our property and had a ceremony, where we buried the ashes and erected the cross. He we all are:
Me, Colin (my partner), Bryan (my brother), Brendon (my nephew) and Banjo our dog, who also is no longer with us.
I went to visit the grave last week. It was my father’s birthday on 14th April. I lit some candles and sat beside the grave in the quiet and still of the evening. I had a beer and a chat with my dad. It is a nice resting place. I thought how important it is to have a place where you can go and connect with someone who has passed away - I suppose that is why we have such symbolic places as graves and memorials. And that is why people make pilgrimages half way round the world, to see a field of tiny crosses or a plaque or a statue. And why many peoples of the world have celebrations, like “The Day of the Dead”, and have a big party by the gravesides of their ancestors.
