At 104 years of age, WWII veteran Fred Power will have never seen an Anzac Day like this weekend, but staff at his South Coast NSW aged care home say they will make sure the day is a special one.
Mr Power has the trademark self-deprecating Australian sense of humour, even though he has lived through a depression, numerous wars, droughts, bushfires, and now coronavirus.
He was even willing to see in another Anzac Day this Saturday without any major celebration.
"I've got nothing planned. I've got a poppy somewhere so I'll probably put that on my shirt," he said.
Luckily, one of his carers was listening in to the phone conversation and stepped in.
"We're going to organise a little service for everybody to remember. They won't go without," she said.
"Sometimes they think old soldiers are important, other times they think they're a bloody nuisance," Mr Power replied.
Again, he is joking. Fred Power is a highly-respected member of the Inasmuch Community aged care facility in Sussex Inlet.
Facility one of many cut off to visitors
Like all aged cares facilities in Australia, Fred Power's is in lockdown due to coronavirus.
Even if he could leave, large gatherings to commemorate Anzac Day have been cancelled.
He has lived in the area ever since he and his wife bought a block of land at the town south of Jervis Bay after discovering it while travelling Australia in a caravan.
"The people here are marvellous," he said.
"This place I'm in isn't owned by a big corporation, it's owned by a local group who raised the money and built it themselves.
"You couldn't wish for a better place to be if you're old and decrepit like me. They spoil me rotten."
Memories of being 'hopelessly outnumbered' in Malaysia
Within a year of putting aside a job as a green grocer in Sydney in 1940, Frederick Percy Power was sent to the east coast of Malaysia to serve with the Australian Army.
His memories of that time during World War II fighting the Japanese occupation of Malaysia were traumatic.
"We were hopelessly outnumbered and ill-equipped," he said.
"We had no aircraft and the Japanese had everything.
"They belted hell of us with bombing and we just had to hold on, and eventually we got trapped and we held off there for about a day."
With many of the battalion wounded, his colonel said their options were to cause a diversion to get out or resign to all dying together.
A group of brave soldiers opted to stage an attack on a roadblock, but were met with an "absolutely deafening" amount of gunfire, killing the group instantly.
"The best way out now was to swim across a river and get into the jungle, and that's what happened," Mr Power said.
"We were formed into groups and there was a mountain there which was a hard task to get over because we hadn't had any sleep or food for a week, so it couldn't [afford to] take too long."
They made it over the hill, having to improvise with their clothing to make a stretcher for a mate who did not look like he was going to make it.
Reflecting on other conflicts
These are just some of the memories Mr Power calls on around April 25 each year.
He continued to serve in conflicts in Borneo and the island of New Guinea, which he describes as "a bit of a snack" compared to his time in Malaysia.
He said he does not hold any ill-feeling towards those he fought.
"I don't blame the younger people. The culture at the time was they died for their Emperor," he said.
