Sidney’s book is So Black

Sidney and Linda Black with their book “So Black”. Photo: Monique Ebrington

By Monique Ebrington
REMEMBRANCE Day services are set aside each November for people to remember the wars and those who were lost, events Warburton veteran Sidney Black can’t forget.
The onset of Alzheimer’s disease over a year ago has seen his long-term memory of his time with the 2nd/108th Transport Company in World War II recalled in greater detail.
After the diagnosis his wife of 21-years Linda decided to work with Syd, as he likes to be called, to create a book of his life.
Titled So Black, it was launched at his 84th birthday this year.
It took Mrs Black, with the help of Syd, just over a year to complete. The 12 chapters of the book filled with Mr Black’s photos from his service days in Alice Springs and Papua New Guinea and memories of the war, friends and family.
“It was good to capture some memories before they were lost and it gave me a focus. It was a project to work on as a diversion from the other things,” Linda Black said.
From the patriotism in 1941 that saw the handsome 17-year-old sign on as a 21 year-old to walking 12 days through the New Guinea jungle to watch the Japanese sign the surrender in 1945 on the Wewak airstrip, Mr Black’s photos and memories have captured it all.
“When I was piecing it all together I found out things about Syd that I never knew,” Mrs Black said.
“A lot of soldiers won’t talk about the war. The book captures some of Syd’s memories and is also a dialogue of social history.”
While Syd was reluctant at first about recording his biography he now adores the book and the thought Mrs Black has put into it.
“At first he had nothing to say,” she said. “He would tell me that he could fit his life on the back of a match box. Now he looks at it and reads it every day.”