Marg Tucker wept when she read the stories of ex-servicemen who lie in unmarked graves at Griffith General Cemetery.
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While others graves are festooned with flowers that are replaced by loving family members, their graves remain abandoned and unloved.
It breaks Mrs Tucker’s heart, as one of the only people in Griffith who knows the stories of these men and women and the suffering they endured.
“When they came back from service they were different people from what they were before,” Mrs Tucker said.
Mrs Tucker can rattle of some of their tragic stories by memory - stories of broken men and women wracked with PTSD, alcoholism, and depression.
Some of the older residents of Griffith can still remember some of the broken husks who arrived back from the war.
Many will remember James Burns, who would drunkenly stagger up and down Banna Avenue with a lantern telling harrowing stories about his time in the merchant marines.
His sad life would be cut short one day when he knocked over his lantern during the night and burnt to death in his hut.
Others will remember Albert Roberts, who was run over by a car late at night while he was sleeping in the middle of the road.
Such stories are strikingly common when reading back through the genealogical records and old copies of The Area News, and they made Mrs Tucker’s heart break.
She was devastated at the idea of their stories and their graves being forgotten by the people of Griffith, which is why she has been putting little crosses on the graves of ex-servicemen for the last nine years.
What started as a small personal task has ballooned into a monumental undertaking, now that there are 1020 ex-servicemen graves in the cemetery.
That’s why she’s asking for volunteers to come help her put crosses on the graves at 9am on April 7.
She’s also asking people to donate flowers before April 11, when students from all the schools will be invited come place a flower on one of the graves marked by a cross.
She wants to make sure that for at least one day of the year their graves are festooned with beautiful flowers and their lives are remembered by the people of Griffith.
“They served our country and don’t deserve to be forgotten," Mrs Tucker said.
"I won’t forget them.”
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Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
