Grati-Tuesday 6th December 2022

Written by AHQ

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6 December 2022

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Happy Tuesday Friends!

Hope everyone has had a fantastic week.

Still busily trying to finish a couple of quilts as farewells for Friday. Then sadly no sewing for me until I get my craft room up and running. We need the dining table back for Christmas Lunch/Dinner. LOL

We have another lot of great thank you’s and a couple of photos so grab a cuppa, sit back, relax and enjoy!

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Hello Ruth S,

I am really grateful for the laundry bag and like your cousin’s daughter always thought what a wonderful thing the quilts and laundry bags are.

I thought I’d give you a little bit of insight into what I’ve done in my 28 years in the Army.

I am a specialist officer and a Registered Nurse by trade. I’ve been privileged enough to deploy to East Timor on two occasions where I ran the intensive care unit at the deployed hospital.

I also deployed to Bougainville in PNG after the civil war and to provide disaster assistance after the Tsunami and earthquakes in Indonesia and the floods in Katherine and Townsville.

I have two grandchildren but neither are grown up yet.

Keep up the great work brightening up the days of service men and women,

Warmest Regards,

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Dear Jan-Maree,

I am so thrilled to have been presented this wonderful quilt from Aussie Hero Quilts, and want to say a big thank you to you all, and especially Philomena H.

The thoughtfulness and effort to create a quilt that reflected my journey is incredibly special and humbling for both myself and my wife, who has been on every step of that journey. We will treasure it and display it with great pride, and use it to share your story as well as our own.

Aussie Hero Quilts have been an extraordinary element of our people’s story as they served their nation on deployments over the past decade. Your thoughtfulness and care in consistently supporting our troops has been incredible, and you have received deserved praise and appreciation for that.

As the (former) Chief of Army, I can only reinforce that sentiment for what you do for our people. I know how much it meant to them as they served away from home, to know people cared and selflessly volunteered time and resources to show it through such special recognition and lifelong keepsake.

Thank you again to you and all of your team in Aussie Hero Quilts. You are national treasures!

Our very best wishes for the future.

(Note – the photos of the quilts for the former Chiefs of each branch of the services was in the Grati blog on 18 Oct 22)

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Dear Janis K,

I have received your quilt and I love it. I’m really impressed by the hand-made star wars characters. I was not expecting anything like this. My kids love it too and it now belongs to them. Thank you for your kind letter as well. We are finally back alongside, enjoying our families after 6 months on deployment. It has been a long and challenging deployment, but we had a very good crew and some memorable port visits. We just missed our families and we are so happy to be back.

I just want to tell you a bit about me and my family. I’m originally from Italy, from a small town in the mountains. I moved to Australia in 2008 and I loved it. I love the lifestyle, the people, nature and the weather. I met my wife in 2015, just before joining the Navy. She is Vietnamese, from a country town in the Mekong delta. She also came here to find a better life. We now have 2 beautiful kids who speak 3 languages. We love living on the coast of Western Australia, we love spending afternoons on the beach and weekends camping in the national parks. We have beautiful rivers for kayaking and tracks for biking. It’s so good to be home.

I’ve been away from home 3 times in the last 5 years and it has been challenging for me and my family.

Please keep supporting us on deployment, it makes us feel appreciated and it gives us a smile when we need it.

Kind Regards

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Hi Barbara D,

I received a lovely surprise when I received your quilt and letter.

It is brilliant, I really love the approach with the differing themes

Our team have been delighted with the support we have received from people like you; although the mail system can be laborious into the heart of Africa at times, particularly after everything pretty much shut down during the pandemic, it has been so good to get these packages!

I have really enjoyed the work here – it is busy, but working with so many professional military officers from around the globe has been brilliant. In fact, there are only 15 Australians in our team but from a United Nations perspective, there are 30 in the team from 23 x countries. We do get out a fair bit and it is good to see the country although it can be heartbreaking….they are definitely doing it tough here.

I was gratified to read that you know about Sandakan. It seems so few know about our history!

Anyway, I had better get some dinner on. I am greatly looking forward to watching Australia play Argentina tonight in the football world cup although I suspect it will not be a pleasant result for us!

Thank you again for your thoughts and a fantastic quilt!

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Hi Kate E,

Thank you so much for the quilt, loooovvvve it and I did spot the little elephants and teapots in the quilting, I got it last night and had to show everyone who were still up. The border collie actually looks like my little fella who my parents tell me is getting naughtier while I am away. Mum and dad visit the dogs a couple of times a week as my husband does some late nights at work. He has been like your pup, it’s like he has always been there and when it comes to noisy he is the worst, but I can’t imagine what I did when he wasn’t right there driving me crazy. He is like an eating machine running on adrenaline.

The quilt took a long time to get here but I think it came at just the right time. My friend, the other older girl who was here left for home this morning and I got to go and collect then open up the package last night while she was with me, a couple of other people wanted to see too, so we were standing outside opening a parcel. One of the guys tried to take off with the chocolate biscuits (they are great by the way, thank you).

I’ve brought the quilt in to work today, it’s so much fun to show off something you love. One of the girls knew all of the wildflowers and listed them off. My workmate went back to her room to get her own quilt to show it off all over again. We are like kids showing our presents off Santa to mum and dad.

Everyone has targeted in on the border collie and how well done it is and then ask me to explain the theme, which is pretty easy. I cannot thank you enough, the quilt is way better than anything I could have imagined and has made everyone who looks at it smile and everyone goes over every separate part of it.

Like you, I would love to move to QLD. My husband likes the Sunshine Coast and I would be happy in a leafy suburb of Brisbane, but for now we are in Melbourne suburbia, except for the cold winters it is pretty good. My parents are a 20 min drive away

You will have been to the Dinner in Canberra by now, I hope it went well, I can imagine that there were a lot of creative people in one place and it would have been bright and fun. Have a great Christmas and it sounds like you will be able to have big ones and must have fun with 6 grandchildren to fuss over.

Thank you for the work you do with the quilts, they really do bring a massive morale boost to the people who receive them.

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Dear Jan-Maree,

I would like to pass on my gratitude and appreciation to Lynn F and Aussie Hero Quilts.

The work that has gone into the quilt I received was amazing and beautiful. It was a special moment I got share with my wife and having a Major General present it to me, who I hold in the highest regard as a leader and friend.

The Quilt captures so much of my life and I am so honoured to have it made for me.

Thank you, it means so much.

Please continue the work you do, it is very important and appreciated

Kind regards,

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Message from Facebook

Hi, I received a laundry bag when I went on operation Covid assist in 2021 and it has been great. I have used it when ever I’ve been away for work or otherwise. I appreciate the work that you guys do.

I would like to thank the volunteer who made my bag. I can’t remember her name but I do remember from the letter with the bag that she lived in Port Stephens and was using material from someone who no longer needed it.