WHEN I spoke to my wife in the middle of last year and said I was returning to work as an editor of a community paper her first question was why?
She has lived with me through the turmoil and pressures as an editor of three regional daily papers and was relieved when I finally put my pen down and started my own marketing and communications company.
In the time I was away from journalism I realised how much I missed working with and for the community.
The opportunity to help improve your local area and shine a spotlight on great people is the reason I love writing.
In the past few weeks, I was presented with the chance to tell the story of 97-year-old Olive Pugh a resident of Milford Grange Retirement Village.
Thanks to her daughter Robyn I was able go along and visit her.
Olive’s story and the fact she would be leading Ipswich’s ANZAC Day parade featured on the front page of this paper and in our sister monthly magazine, Ipswich Local.
It revealed how she had served with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force during World War 2. It proved to be a memorable few weeks for Olive according to Robyn who sent this heart-felt message after the parade:
“My mother had a wonderful day, very emotional thinking of her ex WAAAF colleagues, now all gone and many others too now dead. It was a wonderful honour for her and due to you interviewing and publishing her story.
Thank you so very much, such a tribute to Mum in her twilight years to feel so valued and appreciated, I was quite teary myself seeing so many people there clapping and calling out “thank you Olive.”
My family thanks all the people of Ipswich.
After your articles it snowballed into TV interviews too, and more recognition for women’s role in the war.”
You rarely get a note like this one as a journalist, but when you do you just nod your head to yourself and say, “I love writing people’s stories.”
