A special moment

I will write a blog soon about our 24hr visit to Canberra when we reach our next destination but for now I wanted to share something very special.
Since River could talk he has been fascinated by the military but I didn't realise just how much until yesterday.
We had 45 minutes left in the day to visit the War Memorial and now I regret that we didn't arrive earlier to give ourselves more time to walk this amazing shrine to our Australian heroes.
The art gods are definitely looking after me at the moment because the memorial gallery was exhibiting Ben Quiltys Afghanistan exhibition so Ruby and I spent our 45minutes admiring his brilliant portraits.
Anthony and River walked around the museum and when we met back up Ant told me how much River was enjoying himself.
I decided we should stay for the last post after the museum closed and we joined the other few hundred people gathering at the pool of reflection.
I was talking to a man while waiting for the ceremony to begin about his grandfather whose name was on the memorial wall and I mentioned that my great grandfather fought in world war 1 and he gave my Grandfather the name of William Gabe Tepe (Gabe Tepe being one of the outlooks at Gallipolli).
River then pipes up saying 'and don't forget my Uncle Len who is a soldier'....I didn't realise he was listening to our conversation.
Ruby was being her typical 4yr old self whining and saying 'wheres poppy?' at the top of her voice as most can imagine When I mentioned how beautiful the poppies on the memorial wall were ...it would've been easier to forget the ceremony and take them home but I could see Ant was really embracing the moment and I decided to leave Ant and hush the two little ones to some steps so they could sit which gave us full view of the ceremony anyway.
Each ceremony held, a story is told about one of our brave who fought for our country and is remembered.
I must apologize but I didn't hear the soldiers name because I was settling the kids down with River eventually choosing my lap to sit but we did hear his story....he fought during world war 1 at the age of 18 and died from a gunshot wound to the back....at only 19.
The story went for a while....everyone silent (except Ruby who was fidgeting the entire service) but during one of her quieter moments I witnessed the most beautiful action.....as the soldiers story was being read out...our little boy River, all of 5yrs old very slowly but deliberately raised his hand to his brow and began to quietly salute this hero of our country whose short life our generation wouldn't even know existed if it wasnt for this service.....he didn't just do this action once but at least 4 times very slowly and quietly without anyone even noticing...I lost count through the quiet tears of pure joy and pride I had for this special little man we named River.
At that moment I reached out and touched Rubys shoulder and glanced at Ant up on the balcony above us and couldn't have been more proud of these little people we have created.
I am also proud to be an Australian and proud of these men and women like my Uncle Len and my grandparents and great grandparents who chose and still do to sacrifice thier time and many with thier lives to protect us daily without us even giving them a second thought.

We will remember them 💜