I attended Doug Black’s funeral on Monday. It was a huge funeral and, despite being the longest funeral I have ever been to, it was a fitting send-off for a good sound citizen.
Doug served his community in a way that most people would never bother to do and he was a man I admired tremendously. However his time had come and in the end his death was a happy release.
As someone who served in the Pacific in the second world war, Doug was accorded a RSA tribute as part of his service and I have to say I was shocked by the small number of ex-servicemen who were there to pay their respects – and quite a few of them were ex the Malayan and Vietnam wars. It brought home to me how we are very quickly losing a valuable link to an incredibly important chapter in our history.
It is now 65 years since VJ day and inevitably the number of living veterans of the 39-45 conflict is declining. Even a young recruit of 20 in 1945 is now 85 years of age.
I suppose what it brought home to me more than anything was the fact that I’m getting old. I grew up surrounded by people I regarded as heroes – those who went to war and fought for my future. Now sadly, most of them are no longer with us.
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