"He was transferred to Wanganui where he met my mother and in 1941 they were married just before he was sent off to war in Egypt and then Italy. He was in the 19th Armed Battalion in the tanks in the Battle of Monte Cassino."
He was 26 when he was called up, she said.
"He was in the army with my mother's two brothers and he made lifelong friends that would call up to our house on Anzac Day after the Dawn Parade to have their rum and coffee, every year," Williams said.
"We would have singsongs around the piano. Anzac Day was always a special day in our house."
Her father returned in 1946 and he had lost a lot of friends but he never talked about it, she said.
"All we were told came from my uncles. They held him in high regard for whatever reason and told us he had lost his mates in the tank he was in.
"His tank got blown up and he managed to get out a trap door in the bottom of the tank but saw his mates blown to bits. He went missing for a few days but eventually returned deaf and with terrible shell shock.
"He just keep on working when he returned to New Zealand for 45 years as a meat inspector in Wanganui for the Ministry of Agriculture."
He suffered from PTSD or "shell shock" as Williams called it, and he was deaf when he returned, which affected his entire life.
"The shell shock or PTSD and the deafness affected his life in that he would very rarely go out on a social occasion because the noise would hurt his ears and he lost the desire to socialise," she said.
"It meant at home we all had to yell so he could hear and he would stare into space in the evenings deep in thought for hours. He became quite reclusive, spending most of his leisure hours in the garden or reading.
"He did enjoy visiting the RSA and went most days after work but never Sunday. I would have loved to have met him before the war because I know the war affected my parents' relationship but they stuck together for 46 years until he died at the age of 72."
Williams' father never got his medals, but she got them for the family to have.
"When I went overseas and asked him to come to England to visit he told me when he came back from the war he vowed he would never leave New Zealand again.
"I think he made a promise to God that if he got back to New Zealand and his family safely he promised to never leave."
• To make a donation to the RSA visit this Givealittle page
• Join us for the virtual Anzac Day Dawn Service from 6am on Saturday at nzherald.co.nz or Newstalk ZB
• Print out our special Anzac Day poster, pin it in your window and help us line the streets with poppies.
