WITH Jane Hetherington wearing her great-grandfathers medals and daughter Annabel wearing her grandfathers medals, the two proudly represented their family history during the Penola Anzac Day service.
“I am not too sure about my great-grandfathers service yet I do know that my father served in the jungles of Papua New Guinea where he was a radio operator,” Jane said.
“He had native people there who helped him not to get lost in the jungle.”
Jane said her father would not participate in Anzac Day when she was a child.
“He did not like the memories he would associate with Anzac Day,” Jane said.
“He would ask why we would celebrate such atrocities yet when I had children I realised it was not a celebration but more of a commemoration.”
Now, Jane and her children participate in the services every year as they have done for a decade.
“As soon as my children were old enough to get up early, we began going,” she said.
“I had both my father’s and great-grandfather’s medals reset and the children wear them with pride now.”
Annabel is known within the Anzac Day service from her participation in the school choir and the Penola Pony Club.
“We now come along every year as we have done so for the past 10 years,” Jane said.
“But because it was not celebrated or recognised in my family when I was younger I do not know much which is quite sad.
“But the kids love that I had the medals redone and now they wear them with pride.”
