Sleeping soundly, when all of a sudden the insistent buzzing of my alarm goes off. I roll over and look at the time and groan. Swing my legs out of bed, it is then I turn my alarm off so that I know I don’t fall back asleep. Getting up I stumble to the bathroom, do what I need to do, throw some water on my face to waken up, brush my hair and teeth, and then stumble back to the bedroom. I dress quickly and quietly. Once I am dressed it is then that I wake up the rest of the household, to quickly and as quietly as possible get dress. We are all ready I grab my keys and we head out the door. It is still dark when we leave and we drive off in the early hours of the morning to our destination. Arriving we park, and get out of the car. The cold bitterness of the day hits the core of our bodies.
We walk towards the lawn garden, and handed a poppy.
6 am and the lone sound of the bugle plays, with a minute silence followed. With the amount of people here I am surprised at how quiet it really is. Then a lone young voice is heard:
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not 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.
Lest we forget
We Will remember them
And the service begins.
The raw emotion could be felt. It was a time for the old diggers to remember, that 94 years ago was the day that changed history forever. They remembered the horrors they faced, the friends, families and comrades that lost their lives. It was a time for remaining family members to remember their lost loves, husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles or who ever they saw walk off in their uniform and headed of to war. It was a time for me and my family to give thanks to all those men who lost their lives and to those who were fortunate enough to come home. Allowing us to live our life’s in peace.
The colour guards, the lowering of the flags, the eternally flame, these are just small symbols of today significance to many Australian’s and to those Anzac’s;
I have been to a few dawn services before when I was younger but now as I take my children it seems to have more meaning to me. Because for the heroic men and woman who fought in the wars I can live in peace and now my children can too. I felt very proud to be there this morning standing with many. It gave me a moment to remember my two grandfathers who gave their lives for me, who I was never fortunate to met. The only sad thing is that I should be remembering them every day and not just once a year.
So as the services came to an end and the sound of the lone soldier playing the last post was heard. I vowed to myself that this will now become a tradition in my family that every ANZAC day we will rise early and go to a dawn service to honor those men and woman.
Lest we forget.
Rest in Peace to all Soldiers
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