Anzac Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). A day of Remembrance to honour those valiant people who served in uniform. It feels especially important (given our own travails) to remember their sacrifices, difficulties, courage and fear. Their battles were with bombs and bullets. At 6 a.m. the nation will commemorate the day from home, standing at the front gate, or on the balcony or at the window: a communion of thought, followed by the sound of the Last Post - on the radio/TV, or perhaps it will come drifting across the rooftops played on trombone, trumpet or flute by some able musician.
I'm going to take a moment to remember my English paternal grandfather, Corporal Edwin Percy Hardy, 1882-1941. He served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, 6th Field, Ambulance. Warrant Officer Class 2. He served in WW1. Here's the only photo I have of him during that time, he is the tall balding man with his back to us, centre right, somewhere in France:
In his wallet he carried a picture of the girl he would later marry, my grandmother, Edith Bessie Evans - she's sitting in a punt knitting socks for soldiers:
They also serve who knit and wait.
Lovely photo of your grandmother. I see you in her, Sara. Also reminds me of Grace Cossington Smith's The Sock Knitter.
ReplyDeleteGrazyna tried to post this comment without success, (some technical problem) she sent it me via email, it's so delightful I am posting here on her behalf:
ReplyDeleteLovely tribute Sara,
A power of images! How instantly they take you out of one's world into the world of people in the photographs, two young people 100 years ago. I felt for them, for life they lived in these difficult times and adjustments they had to make to their lives. My imagination created a story of them. He's standing in vastness of danger and desolation, she is knitting socks for soldiers, they both are waiting for this difficult times to finish. They are beautiful and tragic in their settings. We can see her better and she is a very attractive young woman.
XGrazyna