Anzac: The story of two grandfathers

You can only imagine the dread they felt during that long boat trip propelling them towards conflict.

My Nonno, my mum's dad, was also a soldier during the Second World War. He was Italian, meaning my two grandfathers were "enemies", fighting for opposing sides.

It is a great irony that twenty years later, the two gentle men would become friends, bonded forever by a marriage between their children.

Both my mum and dad were born after the war. As Anzac Day approaches, I'm thinking about my grandfathers and all of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. How different things would be if one of them didn't return home after the war.

Far too many men and women didn't return home. They didn't get the chance to become parents or grandparents. Whole branches of families ended with them. They didn't come home to be teachers, or doctors, or farmers, or whatever it was they had dreamt of for themselves.

Early on in my journalism career it was drummed into us that Anzac Day was not "celebrated", but rather, "commemorated" - a day of remembrance.

On Thursday, we will remember all of those soldiers who didn't come home, and the many hundreds of thousands more who have been impacted by war.

We will remember that they were somebody's children, somebody's parents, somebody's loved ones ... they were somebody.

We will think about the many thousands of servicemen, like my nephew, who still answer the call to protect their country, and we will wish them peace in their lifetime.

Anzac Day is a day for remembrance and reflection - Lest We Forget.

- Cath Adams, editor