For Leading Seaman Abbey Lane, a few hours in a flooded caravan park turned into a connection that still rings true every Christmas.
During her 2022 Operation Flood Assist deployment to Tweed Heads, Leading Seaman Lane spent her time cleaning caravan parks, homes and public spaces, as well as loading and unloading trucks.
Despite the early challenges, she said the work became more meaningful once the team settled into their roles and began engaging with the community.
At one caravan park, on a "particularly rainy and awful day", Leading Seaman Lane met an older couple caring for a young boy named Mason, who had been abandoned by his mother.
"It really hit me. As a woman, being maternal, and I kept thinking how could someone leave their young son behind?" she said.
"What stayed with me even more was that the older couple, with no relation to him, had taken him in."
While working at the site, Leading Seaman Lane spent time with the family, showing Mason the trucks and taking photos with him, which she shared with him as a keepsake.
She said though Mason was quiet and reserved, he became highly engaged and enjoyed the teams' interactions, despite everything he had been through.
Months later, on Christmas Day in 2022, Leading Seaman Lane received a call from the boy's carer, Ron, thanking her for her support and sharing that Mason had been adopted by Ron's son.
That call started an ongoing tradition with the pair - and Mason - speaking each Christmas since, catching up on the year just gone.
"The fact that he still calls me every Christmas just to see how I'm going, that's just something you don't really get a lot in this day and age," Leading Seaman Lane said.
For Leading Seaman Lane, the experience remains one of the most memorable of her career, highlighting the lasting impact Defence members can have in the community, often in ways they do not expect.
