ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and as a holiday, it is an Australian national date, commemorating in conjunction with New Zealand, the “Battle of Gallipoli 1915”, which carried out against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, leaving a terrible balance of more than 10,000 deaths.
Today, being an event celebrated high in two countries, and simultaneously, ANZAC DAY has become a heartfelt tribute to those heroes who “served and died in all wars, conflicts and peace missions” and in memory of “the contribution and suffering of all who have served” …
Wars have always left indelible traces, traces that mark entire societies for life, defining from these memories what we are as a nation and as individuals.
Today I want to share with you an anonymous but very heartfelt letter from a mother to her son, moments before going to war. A letter that expresses both love and anguish and invites reflection on the meaning of war and the value of the human being, inside and outside it …
Dear son, hello and goodbye!
Many years have passed since the last time I saw you sleep so peacefully, you were just a child when I sat for hours and watched you rest. I remember as if it were yesterday, that in those moments of joy, it never crossed my mind, that I could see you sleep again, while the anguish and despair would accompany a feeling of helplessness almost as intense as my love for you.
I think that only a mother could understand what I am saying, it is not easy to accept that you are about to face what will be perhaps the most important challenge of your life, and surely the most important test of faith of mine .
When you were born, I thought I touched the sky with my own hands, those same hands with which I held you firmly, despite your fragility, hands with which I believed, to be touching an intangible feeling such as pure love and true, a mother’s love for her child.
My wish was always to teach you as many things as possible, like walking, running and flying, flying as high as you could, flying until you reach all your dreams; but instead, I think it was I who learned from you and thus became my teacher of life. I saw you grow very fast, and as you adapted to the world, I was getting to know things that I never imagined were possible. Seeing your first achievements, I knew the genuine and disinterested love, I was happy for your happiness; knowing your needs, I knew the value of sacrifice, I put your well-being before mine and I did it with joy; seeing you dream, I dreamed with you, I felt illusion with your longings, I enjoyed your joys, I suffered with your disappointments, I cried for your failures, and I even felt fear for your desire to eat the world, but your own courage, gave me strength to see you grow and become my greatest pride.
With you, I learned that there is no way to live more intensely, that loving a son, you taught me that by pursuing our passions, and by doing it with decorum, we can vibrate very high, I understood that we can cultivate our greatness, being noble and humble, I have taught you seen serving your fellow men with generosity and purpose, I accompanied you to take risks and learned to take mine, you showed me how to give, without expecting anything in return, you taught me to improve, you taught me to grow, you taught me to be a better person .
Today you sleep your last nap at home, before going to war, you are as calm as I cannot be. Today they snatch you from my hands, those that once protected you from all possible evil, today put your life at risk and interrupt your dreams, so that others can live theirs. They do not know the deep pain they cause me, they do not know how my desire to see you love and be loved crumble, they do not know the anguish and uncertainty they leave in place of your presence.
What if you never come back? What will become of your dreams and mine to see yours fulfilled? You have not yet left and I already feel a huge emptiness, in the house and in my soul …
Thank you for allowing me to give you life, since you renewed mine, thank you for allowing me to love you, and thank you for the courage with which you leave, since it will be the same with which I will wait for you.
Promise that you will return, promise that you will with that smile on your face, which illuminates mine, promises to return so that you continue to shine with your own light, promise to return because you taught me too many things, but you never taught me to live without you …
With infinite love, mom!
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