WHEN Leslie Lee finally hangs up his car keys his parish community in Bellingen, northern NSW, will feel the loss in more ways than one.
Along with his own community-based activities and volunteering, Les – or “Pud” as he has been known for about 70 years – also drives his wife Nell wherever she needs to go to carry out her own parish and community work.
Pud plans to continue driving as long as he can despite recently celebrating his 90th birthday.
“I don’t drive very often and I only drive around the town which was my own wish when I last renewed my licence. I don’t want to drive out of town anymore so I just renewed my licence for around the town,” he said.
Pud is a man who epitomises aging parishioners in many parishes around the nation.
He’s a man dedicated to his God, his family and his country who doubles up on his own community support as a dedicated driver for his unlicensed wife.
Born in Wingham, NSW, in 1921 Pud’s family moved to Bellingen when he was “around eight years old”.
The move provided him with his first opportunity to attend school and he was enrolled at St Mary’s primary school soon after.
As a regular Massgoer his potential as an altar server was quickly noted, but the family were “battlers” so it wasn’t to be.
“They wanted me to (be an altar server) but I think Mum might have been against it because we had to buy our own robes,” Pud said.
“In those days you had to buy your own robes and they were pretty costly and we didn’t have that much money so that’s just how it was.”
Some years later when the school wanted him to take part in a special concert as a 14-year-old, the nuns weren’t prepared to take “No” for an answer.
“I said yes, I can (be in it) but I’ve only got a pair of sandshoes and they said, ‘No, we want you to have a good pair of shoes’ so I said then ‘No, I’m sorry, I can’t do it’.”
Pud said he thought nothing more of it until he was walking past the owner of the shoe shop and was told to “drop in” to the shop.
“(The shop owner) said, ‘Do you know why you are here?’ and when I said no, he said, ‘Well you are to have a pair of shoes’ and that was the first pair of black shoes I’d ever own and the Sisters paid for them so I could be in the concert,” he said.
It was the start of a long association with the school, with his four children, a number of his grandchildren and now several of his great-grandchildren having attended or still attending the school.
During World War II, Pud was keen to enlist but, again, his mother vetoed the idea.
This time the parish priest lent his support.
“Mum wouldn’t sign the papers, I was only 19,” he said.
He said it was suggested he go to see the priest.
“So I went to see the priest – it was Mons Hennessy then – and he came over with me, and Mum said ‘Well, if he wants to go let him go’.”
Pud signed up and joined the commandos on September 25, 1941, and was sent to Papua New Guinea.
He said God and his Catholic faith were important to him particularly during his years in the army.
Pud was wounded by a mortar at Morotai, PNG, and was still in hospital when the war ended.
He returned to his hometown once discharged.
Over the years Pud has been active in various community groups including decades on a mowing roster for the church and parish grounds, as a life member of the local RSL and football clubs, and, since his retirement, spent many years delivering Meals on Wheels.
He also still attends Anzac and Remembrance Day services each year.
His wife of more than 60 years, Nell, has been even more heavily involved in community life and, since retiring, Pud has spent more and more time as her driver for her to get to “things like Catholic Women’s Auxiliary, Red Cross meetings, Meals on Wheels, Communion to the sick – it’s hard to remember everything”.
While Nell delivers Holy Communion, Pud waits in the car but isn’t bored.
He simply prays the Rosary.
“I always have the Rosary beads in the car but I never have to wait that long,” he said.
The couple are part of the parish Rosary group that meets in private homes to pray.
Since retiring Pud has also had the opportunity to attend daily Mass although there are times when he is the only member of the congregation.
“Sometimes there are a few of us, other times just a couple and sometimes, like a week or so ago, it’s just me,” he said.
“But Father (Jim Riley) doesn’t change anything.
“He doesn’t mind. He says he would still be there anyway.”
The Lees said the secret of a long, happy life and marriage was tolerance, having the same interests and putting up with each other.
“And health that would be another one,” they said.
