The last week has been pretty hard for me. I moved my website to another website host and, to cut a long story short, I lost most of Midlifestylist.com. Six months of work down the drain.
It’s really devastating and I felt like giving up, but my son gave me a pep talk last night which encouraged me to keep going. He’s a musician, music and video editor and music technician and he’s had his full share of devastating losses like this – one of his hard-drives burnt out and he lost a whole year of work a few years ago. I feel terrible because people who clicked on a link to my site got an error message, I apologise for this if it has happened to you.
The good news is, I have been able to move my website back to the original place and it seems to have been restored just the way I had it before! Enormous relief.
Anyway, I wanted to commemorate Anzac Day today. Anzac Day is a Public Holiday in Australia and New Zealand to remember our Service men and women who served in the Armed Forces. With great respect we hold dawn vigils and ceremonies in honour of these amazing people. This year was different because of Covid-19 – social distancing meant that we couldn’t gather at ceremonies so we stood on our driveways with a candle instead.
In honour of my grandfather who served in World War One, I published his story in my blog about my family history, This is Who We Are. You can read it here. It is his memoirs of his time spent serving in France for the British Army – he went to war at age 18 and spent 5 years in the front lines in Ypres, Somme and Maubeuge in many of the bloodiest battles of World War One.
Harold Norris, Private 16471 of the 18th King’s Liverpool Regiment of the British Army from 1914 – 1919. Served in WW1 in Somme, Ypres and Maubeuge in France
I also Honour my Father-in-Law Ces Henry who served with the Australian Army in Korea. He doesn’t like to talk about his time spent overseas serving our country, but we know that he was on the front lines there and conditions were particularly horrendous for them.
Cecil Henry, my father-in-law with Gwen, my mother-in-law. Cec served in the Australian Army in Korea and other overseas posts including in Japan after the war.
My sister’s son Xavier is carrying on the family tradition and is serving with the Australian Army at the present time. I’m very proud of him – his mother unfortunately passed away after years of being unwell so he overcame a lot growing up. He was deployed in Iraq for some time last year.
Xavier my nephew (far left) who serves in the Australian Army
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Lest we forget
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen, September 1914
MidlifeStylist 
15 responses to “Why Anzac Day Means so Much to Me”
What a nuisance about your blog website. I want to migrate mine to another site but I have quite a bit of trepidation that the technical side will defeat me! I think it’s lovely how Anzac Day has become reinvigorated and being embraced by young generations as well. I don’t have any family connections like you but view it as it’s a special day.
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Yes, it was definitely a wake-up call in realising how much would go down the drain if I lost it permanently. I’ll put up with the limitations my website provider has rather than lose it altogether. I’m glad the younger generations appreciate the significance of Anzac Day too. Thanks for your feedback
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I can’t imagine the stress you’ve had this week. I loved reading you Anzac Say post. I’m heading over now to check out your family history blog as I’m a genealogist and also have a family history blog. I will share yours around my networks
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Thanks so much Jennifer. I don’t do as much genealogy these days but still like to check my Ancestry account every few days. I wrote that blog for my kids and nephews. It’s a great hobby
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Hi Christina sorry to hear about the dramas with your website. It must have been a week for those things to happen as my computer suddenly died on Friday and I had to do a full factory restore 😦 I’m pleased to hear that you could recover your work for your website though. Thank you for also sharing your special memories and thoughts about your loved ones and Anzac Day. Always a pleasure to have you join us at #MLSTL and have a beautiful day. xx
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Thanks so much Sue. I hope your computer’s back up and running now. It’s easy to lose so much work! I hope you have a beautiful day too
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Thank you for sharing your story about Anzac day. I live in the United States and am enjoying learning more about Australia from different blogging connections. I hope having your site back where it started will prove to be a good move for you. Technology can be a genuine Achilles’ heel.
Blessings, Michele
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Hi Michele, yes I agree! I have had to learn so much about other things since I started this blog and sometimes I get frustrated that my lack of knowledge about computers holds me back. I’d be happy to just stick with writing! Thanks so much for your feedback
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P.S. Shared to my Facebook page.
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So glad you got everything back together again. I stick with my little Blogger blog because I have nearly 1000 posts and I’m not sure I could face losing them if I transferred them somewhere else. I’m also realizing that my blog is a happy little hobby and I’m not going to do anything to it that leads to any potential stress!
Thanks for linking up with us at MLSTL and I’ve shared on my SM 😊
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Thanks so much Leanne. It was definitely a huge wake up call. I don’t ever want to go through that again ! Once again I feel privileged to be amongst this supportive group as not many people could relate to it outside the blogging community! Thanks so much for your comment
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I’m glad to hear you managed to retrieve your blog Christina! Aren’t kids great when they give their parents a pep talk? It was lovely to read your post with some of your family connections with ANZAC Day. I posted about my grandfather in my post too on the day, it’s a special day for so many reasons. I can imagine the stress you’ve felt. Take care #mlstl
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Hi Deb, yes it’s nice to be on the recieving end of compassion from my son for a change! I’m so proud of my grandfather. what he did at such a young age is mind boggling. It’s amazing that he even survived. Thanks so much for your feedback
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Glad you got your blog back…nothing worse than thinking it’s gone.
I like your loving and heartfelt post about why it’s important to commemorate ANZAC Day. Thank you for sharing.
Denyse #mlstl
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Thanks so much Denyse. Yes it was a pretty scarey week! So relieved that I didn’t lose anything. I appreciate your feedback, regards Christina
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