Mick’s father was a smallholder farmer in Italy minding sheep. At the start of WW2, Mick’s father was drafted into the Italian army. He was given two months training and then sent to the front lines in Egypt.
Mick’s father experienced traumas during the war, and was eventually taken as a prisoner of war. After the war, he and his wife emigrated to Australia, and made their living on a small farm in the area. Mick and his siblings were raised on that farm.
Mick said that a little while back a woman came into the Winsome. She was rough sleeping at various locations around Lismore, and has struggled to maintain secure housing and stable employment for some time.
As this woman told part of her story to Mick, he recognised some parallels. This woman’s father had also been drafted into the war, and had also experienced traumas. When her father returned to Australia, he turned to drinking to help ease what he had experienced overseas. She told Mick about ways her father’s choices impacted the whole family.
Although Mick’s father stayed away from drinking, Mick knows of some neighbours from his childhood who had also served in the war, and who turned to grog.
“It just reminds me that it could have been me,” Mick says, “when I first started volunteering at the Winsome, some of my friends ask me why I was helping those people. Now I see that it could be me. But by the grace of God, it could be me.”
