Goya Dmytryshchak
One of the last surviving Diggers in Melbourne’s west says he is determined not to let coronavirus kill the Anzac spirit.
World War II veteran Marcus Gillespie, six months shy of 96, will commemorate Anzac Day twice in lockdown.
The Spotswood Kingsville RSL member, who is now at Benetas St George’s in Altona Meadows, joined in the home’s service on Thursday and will watch the Victorian Dawn Service on TV.
Mr Gillespie stays in touch with his family and mates although he can’t physically see them.
“I’m locked up, of course, like everybody else,“ he said.
“We all can’t get out anywhere, no visitors or anything like that.
“It’s very, very tough … I miss everything.
“It’s an unfortunate thing and I never thought I’d see it in my lifetime but these things come along and you can’t help it.
“[With] the dawn service, it’s a shame … but I think it’s for the good of the community.“
Mr Gillespie joined the army as soon as he turned 18 in 1942.
“I was a trooper, the cavalry,“ he said. “The First World War was horses, of course, and the Second World War was tanks – I was in the tank.“
He described COVID-19 as the worst thing he had experienced in his lifetime.
“I would try, if I could, anything anything to stop it,“ Mr Gillespie said.
“I’d probably call it an unknown enemy – you can’t see it.
“It’s different in, say, war – you can see your opponent, you can either get out of his road or fight back.
“But in this instance, it’s an unknown terror.“
But Mr Gillespie remains stoic and said it was a matter of adapting to circumstances.
“It’s just a matter of doing what you have to do,“ he said.
“There’s a very old saying that I go by and it’s, The day that you were born is the first day of the end of your life.
“That means, you never know when you might meet your fate.
“It might be on the freeway, it might be a week after you were born. It might be an old bugger like me.
You just have to take it as it comes along.
“It happens to be life itself.
“Look for the good times, don’t look for the bad times.“
