There was something different about seeing his name on that plaque

I sat at his memorial and read his story to him by Lara Braithwaite

Prior to entering the ANZAC Spirit, despite my love for war history, I never felt a true emotional connection to the people I was learning about. It wasn’t until I began researching my great-grandpa Bill that I realised although these events took place decades ago, they still bare grief today. My great grandpa did return home from war, but it would later take him from his wife and 2 children who believed he never healed from his wounds. The family, that would later become mine, have lived their whole lives without their father/husband.

This is where I began to feel the true affects of war. Although, weeks before we left for Darwin as I was researching Eric Pollard, I felt the same as before the competition. I felt as if I was just reading a story, it didn’t feel real. Until day 4 of the trip when we visited Adelaide River War Cemetery.

Eric’s name is placed on a plaque in the centre of the cemetery, along with his many comrades whose remains were never found after the bombing of Darwin Harbour. I had never been one to get emotional at cemeteries, but there was something different about seeing his name on that plaque. I sat at his memorial and read his story to him. I thought about the family he left behind. I thought about the 4 other men who died in the same room as him. Did they know it was coming? What did they say to each other? Did they cry for their wives, for their children whom they knew they would never see again?

This experience changed me as a person. Going from reading a story from a screen, to seeing and placing a poppy above his plaque mere kilometres from where he died changed me. I always felt as if I was removed from the past, as if it would never affect me since it happened so long ago. But being there and seeing it all for myself, being indulged in a goldmine of history which is the Northern Territory as a whole, I felt a true personal and emotional connection. Not just in the NT, but here in my hometown I continue to feel the connections of the past.