Grati-Tuesday 10 March

Good afternoon.
You just know that the authors of these letters and emails home are smiling when they write them.  Grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy the read. 
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Hi Ruth,

  

I received the lovely laundry bag you sent over, thank you. The ANZAC scene looks fantastic, I agree the poppies do look great. I am very proud to serve our wonderful country.

We really appreciate the time and effort everyone at Aussie Hero Quilts puts in to making the quilts and laundry bags. Everyone is super excited when their quilt or bag arrives and we proudly show them off to everyone. Its great how you make them so personal for each member. Thank you so much.

Kind regards

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Good afternoon Gail,

I would firstly like to thank you for your support and effort with the quilt, knowing there are people happy to support current serving members with these gifts of support. Please pass on my thanks as well  to both Jan-Marree and Kerri B.

By ways of introduction I am currently serving in IRAQ and have been since late last year. My work here is enjoyable as we are here to help. I am also married with my family in the Northern Territory.

I very much appreciate the work and time you have placed in sewing my quilt. Looking at it, I am amazed with the amount of effort and quality of the quilt. Again thank you for your support.

Again thanks for your support and hope you continue to support other members with the wonderful work you have done with the Hero Quilts.

Regards.

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Dear Ellen

I am the lucky recipient of your quilt while I am deployed!

I absolutely love the desert colours and the barbell and kettlebell are a perfect representation of my daily gym routine!

I was so excited to receive this quilt in the mail and it now lives on my bed.

I am 36 and a Signals Officer in the Army and this is my second deployment. I am based in Darwin at the moment however Perth is my favourite city where I hope to live permanently soon.

In my spare time I try to be quite active and divide my time between CrossFit training, cycling and triathlon preparation.

Thank you again so much for your thoughtful gift. I will cherish it and bring it home with me to remind me of the wonderful people like you who make our time here so much happier.

Sincere thank you .....

Dear Toni,

I hope this email finds you well.

You recently made me a beautiful unique laundry bag.

You also sent me a letter on the 16th of September 2019.

I sincerely apologise for my late reply!

When you had sent the letter and the laundry bag I had left the dive school soon after I completed the kokoda track. Some of my belongings were lost in transit to my new posting.

The only thing that I wanted back that was lost was your letter and contact details, so that I could finally thank you for spending the time and effort in making my special gift.

I feel so honoured and overwhelmed that someone that I have never met has gone to such lengths.

I also feel humbled that there are people out there that are still giving just for the sake of giving.

I hope that the efforts from doing the kokoda track with my team and raising nearly thirty thousand dollars for the cancer council Australia give those in need the same feeling that you have given me.

I love the story how you met Jan-Maree and how you came across Aussie Hero’s.

I have always been amazed at how the universe brings people together just like you and I.

I want you to know that I love my laundry bag and that I use it everyday at work.

Again Toni thank you very very much for such a selfless acted. What you are doing is such an inspiration to all.

You guys are the true hero’s !!

Best wishes and I hope to hear from you soon.

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Hi Jenni,

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you very much for my quilt and package. I received it yesterday and I was stoked with it! It will come in handy at the moment as we are currently having some very cold mornings here. We even had snow two weeks ago. I just want to thank you for all the work you have done it truly means a lot to us. Please pass on my best to your family I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you the very best for this year it’s already moving fast.

Take care and thanks again.

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Jen (& Josh, Kayla & Brad),

A massive heartfelt thank you for taking so much time and effort to make such a fantastic gift for someone you have never met!  I am so over the moon about both my quilt and laundry bag.  I must say after nearly 26 years in the Armed Forces, this is a first. 

I have never experienced this before and think it is a lovely thing to do and makes servicemen and women feel really special.  It really shows that people are thinking of you back home and understand what you are going through.  My quilt is firmly sitting pride of place on my bed.

Even better to have all the other thoughful gifts and Tim Tams of course.  Thank you so much.  My wife and boys couldn't believe and were awe struck when I sent them the pictures through.

I am just over halfway through my tour and just another few months to go! 

Of all my operational tours and I have done quite a few, this has been the hardest as the boys are now 10 and 12 years old, so really miss me not being there, particularly in a new country (as a lateral transfer) with only friends and no family for support.  Really looking forward to get back to them and catching up on all I have missed, but technology now makes it so much easier with WhatsApp, etc.

It is getting late now, but just wanted to finish off by saying a heartfelt thank you for all the time and effort.  In the UK we don't have anything similar, so this is a real first for me.  I have been here before in very dark times for the country and that is why I chose the Flag, the Union Jack and the Australian Flag, which really puts everything into place and will be the ultimate momento of my trip.  And trust me, I'm always in need of a laundry bag whenever I am away on courses and deployments.

Once again, thank you and I hope you and the family are well.  Sounds like they keep you busy.

Thank you for making me smile

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Good morning Bridget,

I have received the laundry bag you have made for me.  It is quite awesome I must say.  I have been in the Navy for over 30 years and deployed many times at sea and on the ground.  However, I have never received such a lovely gift.  It really does make the time away more bearable knowing that there are people at home, other than our families, who support us.  Not necessarily what we are doing, but that we are willing to do it.

I do a bit of sewing myself.  You see, my mother was of the opinion that all men should be able to take care of themselves.  Which of course included cooking and cleaning as well as sewing.

My wife crochets small baby blankets mostly for friends and family.  But she also donates them to hospitals for the little ones that don’t make it just so they have something nice.

Thanks again for gift.

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G'day Pennie!

First and foremost, I sincerely apologise that it's taken me so long to reply to your wonderful letter! Life since I got home from the Middle East has been surprisingly busy, and I foolishly took myself overseas without your letter and therefore had no way to reply. But nevertheless, I managed to get someone to send me a photo, and I'm now writing to you from a nice comfortable seat in Haneda Airport, Tokyo, as I wrap up the final part of my post deployment leave.

To say I love the quilt is an absolute understatement, and its sitting proudly on my couch in the living room. I can't wait for the weather to cool of again at home so I can enjoy it while watching the mighty Bombers hopefully win a few more games this season. And it would be remiss of me to not complement your quilting skills! I'm amazed at your efforts and extremely grateful for the time and effort that must have gone into it. My mum has recently started quilting too, and she took the time to explain all the methods to me, and she was mightily impressed with your work. She's so far only done fairly small works so far (a new blanket for each of the babies born into the extended family), but as she hones her skills a little further I think she would love to get involved with the Aussie Hero initiative. 

It's great to hear about your son in the RAAF too, I can only hope that he finds his career as rewarding as I have over the years! It's given me some opportunities that I'd have never dreamed of when joining up, as well as having me travel all over the globe with what's turned out to be most of the best mates that I've got. 

Lastly, I just want to say thank you for YOUR service. Whilst it can be easy to recognise us when we go overseas for a couple of months, I think the work that you're doing day in and day out as a nurse is incredible and never gets the thanks it deserves. So again, thank you very much. 

Kindest Regards,

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G'day Marilyn,

Thank you so much for the laundry bag it's as good as I could have imagined. It certainly isn't too bright for me, I have a rather large collection of Hawaiian shirts (much to my wifes displeasure) so it will fit in perfectly. 

I finished up my deployment early Feb so I've been back in lovely Brissy for almost a month now. Home for me is up on the Sunshine Coast but I live just west of Brisbane these days. 

Sounds like a nice spot you have down there, hopefully you weren't affected by any of those fires whilst I was away. 

Thanks again for your Kindness and letter.

Kind Regards,

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Sue,

I received my quilt from you the other day and was amazed by the care and thought that went into it.  We have been having an interesting time over here and there have been many challenges.  Your gift and the others that have arrived for the soldiers have been warmly received and provided a welcome diversion and reminder of home.

I speak for all of my soldiers when I say that its things like your gift that reminds us of what is important.  It quickly becomes a thing of pride and I often see them comparing designs.

Every bed and room is adorned with these quilts and it leads to a welcome sense of homeliness.  Also, I’m glad a Kiwi made my quilt as I currently have 45 Kiwi’s working with me over here!!!

So from all of us; NZ and AS soldiers thank you for your effort, care and kindness.

Best Regards

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Till next time... keep spreading the word and happy stitching!

Jan-Maree xx