Our Stories
Vasey RSL Care has a long and proud tradition of caring for, providing accommodation for, and supporting the ex-service community – veterans and war widows.
Those who have served their country in war face unimaginable situations, while all those who sign up to the serve are ready to do the same. Their spouses face their own hardships and for those whose partners do not return home, life changes for ever.
Approximately two-thirds of those in our residential homes are from the ex-service community, while all those in our ex-service accommodation units are veterans or war widows.
Here we tell the stories of some of those who have served, been widowed, or have just found a home at Vasey RSL Care.
Gwen Paxino, widow of Andy Paxino
If you are familiar with Vasey RSL Care Frankston South, the name ‘Paxino’ will be ringing bells for you. In 2019, Gwen Paxino moved into our Frankston South home – but it was not the first time she had lived there.
Norma Copeland – a life in art
Norma Copeland and fellow resident Patricia Coe (see below) exhibited their art at the Hawthorn Town Hall Gallery. Norma uses mixed media whilst Patricia prefers water colours, often with Indian Ink, charcoal or gouache.
Norma is full of amazing stories about her colourful life: “I was accidentally cast in a musical” is just one of them.
Patricia Coe – lifelong rebel
Patricia Coe first took up a paintbrush when U3A were offering painting classes. But this was not her first foray into art – taking after her father, she was very experienced in sketching.
Patricia was just about to take up a scholarship to Paris when World War II ruined her plans, and instead, she joined the army.
Nan Jones – painting for 25 years
A war widow, Nan took up painting in her 60’s, looking for a hobby to keep herself occupied, and she began with an Adult Education course. Cataracts slowed her up for a while, but after she got her eyes sorted out, she got back into it.
Gordon Sampson, Korean Veteran
It would be unthinkable today for a 14-year-old to join the Marines.
But when Gordon Sampson was growing up in the British port city of Plymouth at the end of World War II, the Royal Navy had no problem recruiting him. And Gordon didn’t seem to have a choice about joining the Royal Marines at that age. It seems like his father had him dragooned!
Barry Earle, Vietnam Veteran
Barry Earle was a
national serviceman, conscripted in the call up of 1967. He was sent to Vietnam in December 1968 as a cook with Australian Army Catering Corps’s 3rd Cavalry Regiment.
Barry had applied to be a driver, thinking that would be better and safer than being an infantry “grunt”, but he found himself serving as a baker.
Barry served 273 days in Vietnam stationed at Nui Dat, near the ‘dust off’ pad, where the helicopters landed with the wounded and the dead.
Kevin ‘Butch’ Brady, Vietnam Veteran
Even now, aged 77, Kevin ‘Butch’ Brady is an imposing figure. When he was fighting fit and a Platoon Sergeant at his peak in Vietnam, he must have been intimidating.
Kevin claims the honour of having led the only documented bayonet charge in the Vietnam War, during Operation Bribie. We are used to seeing images of bayonets fixed on 303 rifles, but not on the lighter-weight, semi-automatic FN FALs carried by Australians into the jungle and rice paddies of Vietnam. However odd it may have looked, the bayonet charge by two platoons had the desired effect.