For more than 40 years, Joyce Foster hasn't missed a Remembrance Day or an Anzac Day in Canberra and every time she visits, she always sheds a few tears.
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"Don't mind me," the plucky 80-year-old said, with a poppy clutched in her hand and an Australian flag draped across her shoulders.
"Hearing the Last Post always makes me a bit teary."
Mrs Foster had travelled on her own down from Newcastle, first by train and then by coach, to pay her respects on one of the most sacred days on the Australian War Memorial calendar which marks when the guns finally fell silent on the Western Front in 1918, on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month.
She visits to honour several members of her family who died in conflict but most especially her son, Peter, who died not in war but before shortly after enlistment.
A reservist, Peter Foster travelled to Sydney to sign up, was accepted, but then contracted haemochromatosis. The disorder, in which the body absorbs too much iron, went undiagnosed for too long and he died before a specialist could help him.
After the ceremony, she pushes her wheeled frame in and catches the lift to place a poppy alongside the thousands of others on the memorial's Roll of Honour.
"I'm not tall enough but there's always someone there who can help," she said.
She was among the several thousand people who paid their respects on Remembrance Day, with Governor General David Hurley providing the commemorative address in which he recounted the moving story of Master Sergeant Cecil Healy, the only Australian Olympic gold medalist to die in war.
At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Cecil Healy was Australia's best chance for a swimming gold in the men's 100.
Healy was a man of integrity and principle. When the American swim team missed their semi-finals because of a race start time mix-up, he refused to swim unless they were reinstated.
The officials relented and the Americans were allowed to race. But it was to Healy's detriment because he was beaten in the final by the US champion Duke Kahanamoku, the man who would later introduce surfing to Australia.
Fittingly, Healy later won gold in the 4 X 200m relay.
In May 1918, after serving in support capacity behind the lines, Healy could no longer accept that he was not bearing his share of the risks on the battlefield and undertook officer training to become an infantry platoon commander.
Three months later he was shot and killed when leading his platoon during the Australian attack on Peronne.
A former Army general, Mr Hurley described Cecil Healy as a man who "had no love of the military, no desire to fight but he recognised that his values and his freedom were threatened".
"Reluctantly he chose to serve, fully understanding the risks contained in that decision," he said.
"In that, he is an example to us today."