Old Soldiers

I've had little time to post lately. Not that I've been short of ideas; I have too many going around in the conscious and subconscious, if I could focus on one at a time it would be better. I wrote a letter today to an old mate of Lib's dad. I'll copy it here as it'll help me learn how to do things and also it may be interesting to some. It will be self explanatory.

Dear Phil,
Glenda Salter, daughter of George Atchison, told me, after she spoke to you on the phone recently, that you were interested in my relationship with Bill Meek, and also that you would like some news of Bill’s widow Molly. Glenda told me you’d written to Jack Cullen who lives in Wangaratta and sees Molly regularly, but she thought I may like to write to you personally, which I’m pleased to do.
I first met Bill in 1979 or early 1980, in Wangaratta, where I worked for the Dep’t of Agriculture as an apiary inspector. Bill’s youngest daughter Libby was a nurse at the Wangaratta Base Hospital and had a nurse friend who lived in the same block of flats as me, near the hospital. We met when Lib visited her friend, and a friendship grew as we met at social functions, as you do in a country town.
Lib was planning to do a trip to the U.S. early in 1980 with the friend who lived two doors from me. Lib had relatives in Canada and California and her older sisters had been over to see them previously so it was high on Lib’s priorities to also do the OS thing. Before they had made concrete bookings, Lib’s friend pulled out. Lib was disappointed when I visited her at her flat she shared with another nurse. She said she would go alone.
I had been to the US and Mexico with two mates on a holiday the previous year and frankly, had found US cities, especially downtown bus stations, a bit scary, but having enjoyed the travel and not liking to think of Lib over there alone, I said I’d go with her if she’d like. So it was some time before our May 1980 trip that I met Bill and Molly, with them keen to meet the person who was to accompany Lib to America. Molly had retired from her secretarial work at the WBH and Bill was semi-retired, still working from home as a stockbroker’s agent, but scaling down.

Well thirty years have passed so quickly. Lib and I were married on 31 Jan 1981 in the church opposite Brown Bros winery (Ed's note- how appropriate!) followed by a reception at ‘The Old Emu’ restaurant in Milawa. In the almost twenty years I was fortunate to have Bill as a father-in-law I found him to be one of the most pleasant people I’ve ever met; always calm, good natured and considerate of others. He was devoted to Molly. Lib’s sisters, Margaret and Pat, in Bairnsdale and Bendigo, have enjoyed successful marriages and raised families, with their now adult children making their way in the world. Lib and I left Wangaratta in 1981 and moved to Gembrook, where we reside still with our two adult boys, Gordon and Robbie. Gord is doing horticulture at TAFE and Rob biotechnology at Monash Uni. I am in a family herb/flower/foliage farm/nursery business at Emerald and Lib still nurses.
Since Bill died in 2000 Molly has battled on remarkably well. She turned 90 last January, and has struggled lately with an infected leg and other ills associated with old age, eg. osteoporosis, arthritis and poor circulation. Her mind is still as sharp as ever and she remains a great conversationalist with a wealth of knowledge. We saw her in Wang recently, she was in hospital recovering from the leg infection. Before this year’s reunion, Gunny Waddell and Jack Cullen took Moll and her neighbour Nell, also a widow, out to lunch to a restaurant/cafe in the King Valley somewhere. Gunny drove them, and insisted on paying. They had a lovely day. Unfortunately Molly gave her leg a slight knock on the car door which broke the skin and led to the infection. She’s home now. I’ll tell her of course that I’ve written to you.

I met George Atchison's sister, Ida Pullar, in Gembrook in 1995. A couple of years into our friendship we discovered that my father-in-law Bill Meek spent five years in the army in the same unit as George and Ron Atchison (who had already passed away). Consequently I became good friends with George and his daughter Glenda, Ida’s niece. I’ve met Jack Cullen a number of times, he was headmaster at Wang High School when Lib was a student there and I met Gunny Waddell at Bill’s funeral.
I see in Bill’s notes about his war years that he met you, Phil, at Puckapunyal in 1940- nearly seventy years ago. He mentioned that you went to Brighton Grammar, as he had. I hope this letter arrives with you in good health. I’d be thrilled to receive a reply giving a brief outline of your life since WW2, if you are up to it. I’ve only been to WA once, in 2004. I would have looked you up had I known of you.

Glenda says Lib and I would be most welcome at the next reunion, 24 April 2010. Glenda met your daughters at this year's. I hope Lib and I can get there to meet Glenda and your daughters.