An Australian Story

Here's a "feel good" story for you! About 2 years ago my dad had a fall and had to have a hip replacement. While in rehab he started to get visits from a man named "Tiger" (still don't know his real name!). When my dad eventually went home- Tiger visited nearly every day to help dad do his exercises and just generally be a cheery visitor to 2 elderly people who were now virtually house bound. At first I was concerned and cautioned my mum to be careful...but soon I realised that "Tiger" was just actually one of a (sadly) disappearing breed of Aussie men who believe that it is important to be a "mate" and who doesn't just talk about helping others but who actually gets in and DOES it!!! His jovial Aussie manner was terrific for my dad- and as I live quite a long way from them it was so comforting to know that someone was there who was visiting them regularly and just generally looking out for their well being. My dad is now in a nursing home but Tiger still visits him (and all the others) there every week. Anyway, yesterday I found out that Tiger had been rewarded for all his great work with the frail, sick and elderly members of the community and had been named "Citizen of the Year" for the Campbelltown (NSW) area at the Australia Day Awards ceremony last Tuesday! How great to hear of someone who is truly deserving and truly gives of themselves to make a difference in the community winning one of these awards......

So this is the congratulations card I made to send to him. It uses the colours from this week's Stamping 411 colour challenge (#108) which coincidentally were just perfectly right for making an "Australia Day"card. - green and gold are our national colours- green for the green of the bush and gold for the gold of the wattle) The dark blue is the background colour of our flag. So the colours couldn't have been more fitting for this card! The crimping on the stars was an idea I really liked on Trish's card here.