THE first War Widows Day in NSW will be celebrated on Wednesday 19 October 2022 with online fundraising campaigns run by Australian War Widows NSW (AWWNSW), locally supporting the 268 war widows currently living in the Coffs Harbour LGA.

The two fundraisers are buying a limited-edition wattle pin for $10 and buying a war widow a coffee.

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“This day is for all who have been touched and bereaved by the death of their spouses due to their Defence service,” Queen Dunbar, the State President of Australian War Widows NSW told News Of The Area.

Returning from a recent trip to meet local widows, Queen said, “During my time with the strong women of the Coffs Coast this week, I was touched anew by their level of care and commitment to each other and other war widows.

“They understood the grief that comes from losing a life partner and wanted everyone to know of the support and friendship that can always be counted on when needed.”

The AWWNSW campaigns aim to involve Aussies from all over the country, with funds raised assisting in the delivery of much needed support services and social connection programs.

Leonie Andersen, 86-year-old Vietnam War widow who lives in Coffs Harbour is a third-generation war widow.

Defence service has impacted her life from before she was born.

“My Grandmother became a war widow on 11 November 1918 during WWI, two hours before the Armistice was signed,” Leonie told NOTA.

“AWWNSW did not yet exist and so she was isolated and had to go to work to support her family.

“There was minimal social connection nor support for her.

“My Mother then became a war widow in 1985 when she lost her husband to Oesophageal cancer following his service in WWII.

“AWWNSW was founded by Mrs Jessie Vasey CBE OBE in 1946 which was terrific because I saw so many war widows lose their husbands in WWII and then many years later when it happened to me, I had somewhere to turn to.

“I looked after my husband for 42 years when he returned home from serving in the Air Force in the Vietnam War before he passed away in 2010.”

War widows used to meet weekly in Coffs’ CWA rooms and that is what sustained them prior to AWWNSW.

“Back then, the whole town was behind war widows because we had lost so many fellows,” she said.

Knowing that there was someone there to talk to who understood what it meant to be a war widow was comforting.
“Now, the community seems to have forgotten war widows.

“We have become hidden in society as the years have gone by without conscription.

“Generations have not been involved in war in large numbers and so it has not impacted their daily life.

“We need to recognise and support war widows as a whole community for their service and sacrifice, no matter how they become a war widow,” urged Leonie.

One of the region’s oldest WWII war widows lives in Sawtell.

“If women ruled the world there would be no War,” she told NOTA, preferring not to have her name used.

“We give birth to these fellows and off they go to get killed in war.

“I was widowed in 2004 and have seen lots of big changes since then.

“We have lost so many members in those years.

“We used to fill the auditorium at C.ex with about ninety war widows but now we have just a couple of tables when we get together.

“We need the support of the community,” she said.

“The war finished, and the world moved on but the aftereffects on our servicemen did not leave them until they died and that impacted on us as war widows from long before we were widowed.”

Purchase your wattle pin at https://awwnsw.sellfy.store/.

To buy a coffee for a war widow, visit https://buy-a-widow-a-coffee.raisely.com/.

Funds raised by both campaigns will be used to support the delivery of AWWNSW’s social connection programs, via its metro, regional and rural guilds and social clubs.

These clubs meet once a month to provide a safe community for members to be heard, understood, and
acknowledged by people with similar life experiences.

By Andrea FERRARI