Grati-Tuesday 26 May 20

Hi everyone!

Hope you are all going well, I know it is almost Winter, but geese how cold was the weekend! It is certainly flanny jammies and slippers weather where I live at the moment.

Just the kind of weather to grab a cup and scroll though this weeks thank you letters.

Enjoy!!

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Dear Roz,

First and foremost thank you for the quilt! The design is absolutely perfect and I wouldn't change a thing (big thanks to your daughter as well! Great to see another Gravity Falls fan). 

I hope you are handling Covid-19 well. Being an emergency nurse during this pandemic must be a tough job. When I was 10 I got appendicitis. I was in immense pain for days before they could finally operate and remove my inflamed appendix. It was approx 6 hours from bursting and potentially killing me. Sufficed to say i was probably a terrible patient, but the nurses that cared for me made the biggest difference to my wellbeing during that time and i thank them wholeheartedly. What you do makes a difference. You guys are the real heroes!

Unfortunately this deployment has been anything but uneventful. With tensions between Iran and the U.S, corona virus, and a few close calls with some other things I wont mention, it's certainly been an interesting deployment if nothing else. 

Our mess is definitely dark and gloomy most of the time, there are people sleeping in the mess roughly 22/24 hours in the day. It also makes for very little downtime so I'm looking forward to getting home where the quilt will be perfect for Netflix nights in front of the TV! So for now it sits safely in my locker where it cant get damaged. 

Life onboard is long and monotonous and my desire to get home grows with each day. But receiving this gift is truly appreciated. Thank you once again. 

Yours aye,

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Hi Susan,

Thank you so much for the beautiful quilt. I wish my Mum could see it. The fabrics remind me of all the material she owned. Some even look familiar (the apple fabric). Mum also loved stationary and the pencil pattern is perfect (she would have loved that print). My family will cherish this quilt forever. I’m halfway through my deployment and I do the same job as I do back home.

Please excuse the card. The only other cards available were birthday and Christmas cards.

Thank you, again.

My Mum would have loved this quilt. Thank you for the effort and love you put into making it. It will be very special to my family and me.

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Good evening Pennie,

I am sending this email to personally thank you for the laundry bag. They are lovely, I was very excited when I received this gift and was very impressed when I saw they even have personnel initials embroidered. This will make washing on board much easier. You can be sure that this gift is appreciated and will remind me of your thoughtfulness.

Kind regards

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Good afternoon Courtney,

Thank you for taking the time and effort to hand craft this amazing quilt cover. It’s things like this that make our long time at sea and away from home that much better, helping us feel connected with Australia.

Glad to hear the ANZAC solidarity even with all the COVID restrictions. I was lucky enough to be part of the guard party during our dawn service on the flight deck of Toowoomba, it was very moving.

  

Thanks again for the quilt cover and your lovely letter too.

Very Many Thanks and Kind Regards,

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G'day Ellen

Firstly thankyou for the hand made bag, it will get plenty of use as I may be going away with the army again later this year.

Even after I leave the ADF this bag will have a treasured place amongst my collection in my military museum in the Wheatbelt W.A, it will be displayed with other comfort initiates sent from home to ADF members like YMCA, ACF and Salvation army bags I have in my collection.

Cheers

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Good afternoon Sally,

I just wanted to drop you a short not to express my gratitude for the amazing laundry bag you crafted for me.

It was a terrific surprise to receive it in yesterday’s mail run …. in part because you had so thoughtfully made it for me; but more so as I wasn’t expecting it! It would appear someone thoughtful in my team ordered it on my behalf; and evidently my passion for the Raiders hasn’t been subtle!

My love of the team grew over the last five years whilst posted to Canberra. I have two amazing young daughters (3yo and 6yo) who I routinely took to games from a young age for ‘daddy – daughter bonding’. These are some of the moments I have missed the most since being deployed.

Prior to deployment I moved my family to Sydney for family support. My wife and girls have been loving the warmer weather and in particular the opportunity to regularly play at the beach and amongst the numerous rock pools along the coastline. Once the footy season starts again in a few weeks I am just hoping my father-in-law doesn’t successfully convert my girls loyalty towards his team the Sharks!

The team over here in the Middle East Area is doing well and morale remains high. Like back home we have been affected by COVID-19. Implementing social distancing protocols has meant our gymnasium has been closed, we wear masks anytime we are outside our rooms or office and sadly our favourite coffee shop has been closed. Despite this the team continues to find the excitement from the little things.

This situation has created some unforeseen benefits however. As our PADRE can no longer conduct live chapel services he has adapted and is now doing them via ‘Zoom.’ This has now enabled family and friends back home to also attend, helping people connect both here and at home who otherwise may have felt isolated.

Thanks again for my laundry bag. The work you and the rest of the ‘aussieheroquilts’ team is truly amazing and greatly appreciated by everyone deployed.

Stay safe and I hope life back home returns to normal again soon…..and you enjoy getting back out sailing again!

Warm regards,

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Hi Dianne, Heather, and Dot,

I’m an army reservist from Perth. At the beginning of the year I was on Kangaroo Island to help with the fires and went from there to working with WA police on the covid19 roadblocks. 

We’ve just finished our last rotation and our Padre presented us with laundry bags from Aussie Heroes. 

I want to say thank you lovely ladies for taking the time to sew these laundry bags for us, I love the pattern and I desperately needed my own unique bag to help in the Army’s communal laundries! It means a lot to know you are out there doing this for us as we work, no matter how trivial or tedious our work can feel. 

I’ve attached a picture of myself with my laundry bag below. Thank you again ladies and please stay safe. 

Warmest regards,

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 Hey Rita,

Just got out internet up and running.

OMG thank you all so much for your amazing care package. You hit the nail on the head with my LB, so love it, it`s amazing. Thank you 😊 😊

You sound like you have amazing family and they all seem to know what they want to do in life.

All of us that go away on Deployments love getting our LB and Quilts, they mean so much to us. A piece from home and it makes it very special to all off us. We thank you all for all the hard work and time you put in to make them.

I have 2 beautiful dogs that my wonderful neighbour who is an ex vet is caring for them while I am away. Missing them so much tho. I had to leave one off my shirts for my big dog as she frets for me when I go away. But my neighbour is so good with them. 

I have been in for about 14 years and love it - first joined the Navy then transferred to the RAAF not long after that.

Hope you all are home and safe and out of ISO, we still have a week to go before we are out of ISO. Always wanted to go to the Galapagos Islands, maybe when things open up again and when it`s safe I might get there.

You are  so amazing and very caring, thank you so much.

Cheers

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Good evening Ellen,

I was the lucky recipient of your hero quilt you made.

Firstly, thank you so very much! I love it!

I love your take on my random request. Sorry to be so vague, I just didn’t want to seem rude given you are going out of your way to make these kinds of things from the kindness of your heart.

It was very nice to hear about your family.

I am personally the first member in a very long time. To the point, we aren’t even sure if any of my family members have served previously.

I apologise for sending an email, and not hand-writing a letter. The mail system right now is backed up greatly due to COVID and I wanted to ensure you received my gratitude.

Thank you again, and I hope home eases restrictions to allow you to travel again!

Kind regards,

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Dear Margaret,

Thank you very much for the wonderful quilt! It is such a wonderful feeling to know people back in Australia are thinking of us, and I am very appreciative of the effort you have put in for me. It makes the long period away from home even more worthwhile.

I hope this finds you well during this unusual time.

Thank you again for the quilt.

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Hello Cath

Recently I had the pleasure of receiving one of your beautiful quilts.

Whilst deployed I wrote to Aussie Hero Quilts requesting a quilt I could use whilst deployed and then to bring home to give to my son. As it turns out, I beat the quilt home, it made it all the way to Afghanistan and my colleagues who were still deployed posted it back to me here.

I absolutely love the quilt. Thank you so much for taking the time to make it for me. I will say however it was mine for about 1 minute until my 2 yr old son commandeered it. 

He is a beautiful little boy who is dinosaur crazy. A little more so now that he sleeps with his new blanket each night.

Thank you once again.

I hope you are staying well in this crazy time we live in.

Best Regards

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This came for Ros G

I have just received my Aussie hero quilt! It is absolutely brilliant- thank

you so much.

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Hi Jenny,

I received your care package today with all the treats and my Maroons laundry bag.

Thank you so much for the beautiful card, I showed it around to as many people as I could find.

The beef jerky didn’t last long after I discovered it in the care package and I shared the Kit-Kat pretty quick as well.

I love the laundry bag and a have paraded it around the office here and everyone agrees how great it is. I would have loved the laundry bag with or without the ‘er’ on QLD, like your son said.

I really appreciate the time and effort you took in putting everything together, it has really brightened my day here.

I am a Warrant Officer over here after arriving only a few weeks ago, so my new laundry bag will get plenty of use and shown of in the communal laundries here. I see Australia is starting to return to some kind of normalcy slowly, unlike here where we still have tight COVID restrictions, so I look forward to when they start to ease.

Thank you again Jenny I, along with all the other ADF deployed, look forward to receiving these laundry bags (and quilts) from Jan-Maree and her Army of dedicated people like yourself.

Kind regards

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Dear Georgina,

My sincere apologies for taking so long to write back to you. It has been a month since I returned to Australia and within that month I have completed my 14 day isolation in Sydney, purchased and currently raising a little puppy and finally gotten back to some sort of normality amid this pandemic.

The quilt you have made is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. The colours, patterns, embroidery and pictures are amazing and the moment I saw it I knew it was made with a mother’s love which was confirmed when I read your lovely letter. I can personally say that receiving a quilt or laundry bag is something servicemen and women look forward to whilst being deployed overseas in the Middle East. A lot of people, myself included, don’t have family members who are able to or get around to sending a little care package, so to know that someone who has no initial connection with you is willing to spend time out of their life to make something so amazing is absolutely heart-warming. Many others and I are extremely grateful for all the beautiful quilts that you do.

I’ve been in the Royal Australian Air Force for 4 years now working as a Personnel Capability Specialist. This was my first time overseas serving my country and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to personally and professionally develop from the experience. Whilst I was overseas, my primary role was to organise movements within the Middle East  I also assisted with the entertainment committee on camp to keep morale high by hosting movie nights, raffle nights, volleyball competitions and much more. I’m happy to be home and am currently getting back into work at my home Squadron.I may be posting next year depending on the COVID-19 restrictions so hopefully my place will have the same view that yours does because it sounds amazing.

Thank you again for making my beautiful quilt, I will cherish it for my lifetime and hopefully be able to pass it down to one of my children one day (at the moment I will stick with having a furbaby though). I hope you and your family are keeping well and safe during this pandemic.

Yours sincerely,

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Good Afternoon Pennie,

I wanted to thank you for the beautiful laundry bag you made for me. I apologise I don’t yet have a photo of it in my space on the boat but will send one through once we have our cabin set up and they are in place. It is absolutely beautiful and reminds me of home and the days coming into dry season (our favourite time of year in the NT.

I just recently joined the crew of HMAS Glenelg and it was almost like a house warming gift, so thank you again.

I hope you are well during this tough time and this email finds you well.

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Dear Helen,

I am a Leading Seaman Systems Operator  in the Navy. I am currently on rotation with OP COVID 19 assist and received your laundry bag the other day and absolutely enjoyed receiving it. The though of sending out the bags is such a kind gesture. I notice that you live in NSW, I live in NSW as well. Hopefully when this pandemic is all over I could come out to you one day and shout you and your sewing group a cup of tea.

Regards,

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Dear Robyn,

I would firstly like to apologies for the amount of time that this email has taken to write to you, but in no way let it retract the appreciation that I have for the laundry bag that you have provided for me.

As you are most likely aware COVID restrictions have actually been quite limiting and it looks like by the time we can return to Australia we would have spent around 120 days without any proper leave from the ship. 

Please rest assured though that your care package and Laundry Bag are appreciated, especially in the darker times when we are really missing home and those special little items that are almost impossible to get in the Middle East.

At this time my Wife remains at home with our dog awaiting our return in  a few months. To be honest I can’t wait to get back to her, and my family. Both my parents and wife have been effected by the isolation requirements and unfortunately their respective jobs have also been effected. But – let’s think of the positives and hope that in the not too distant future we can all get on with jobs and working arrangements.

As I write this to you we have a while to go, and once I get home that completes my  posting aboard Toowoomba – it’s been a long haul and I’m looking forward to working from a building. This will be the first time in my career that I have been posted ashore.. 13 years later – and I cannot wait!!

I look forward to being able to go camping and adventures, getting to truly understand our great country as well as its history.

I hope that everything is well with You, Michael and your Son and are all staying safe an well in this crazy period.

Once again thank-you for the kindness and generosity of the Care Package and Laundry Bag – I will cherish it for a long time.

Yours Aye,

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Have a great week!

Kylie