KEEP SWINGING
90TH BIRTHDAY KEITH REED
KEITH and Joyce Reid had so many wonderful hopes for their retirement but suddenly it all seemed heartbreakingly out of reach.
“I retired and turned 63 a few weeks later. The day after my birthday she died,” Mr Reid said.
“We had so many plans together but it didn’t happen.”
Mr Reid, the sole surviving founding member of the Emerald Lakes Veterans Golf Club, turned 90 on Monday.
He was born and bred in Collingwood and has vivid memories of the Great Depression.
“My father was out of work for eight years,” Mr Reid said.
“In those days you only got a little bit of dole money and you had to work hard for it.”
During his early career, Mr Reid worked at Victoria Brewery before joining the Army in WWII.
“I enlisted and then two weeks later the war was over,” Mr Reid said.
“I was in Rabaul and we stayed for another two years doing repatriation and war crimes trials.”
Upon his return to Australia, Mr Reid took up truck driv- ing and ended up working for the Standard Motor Company.
By the end of his career he was managing the delivery of Toyota vehicles in Australia.
The Reids had been coming to the Gold Coast for regular holidays since 1976.
“My firm had a unit in Surfers Paradise and we’d come up for six weeks every year,” Mr Reid said. “We loved it.”
The couple had two sons and Mr Reid is now grandfather to six and great grandfather to four.
After his wife died, Mr Reid moved to the Gold Coast permanently in 1993.
A keen golfer since his late 20s, Mr Reid helped found the Veterans Club in 1996.
It was here he discovered a new lease of life which he decided to embrace in honour of his late wife and the retirement they’d originally planned together.
“This club has really become my life,” Mr Reid said.
“I’ve cut back to playing 18 holes three times a week now. But in the early days we’d be here five days plus every second Sunday as well as for the raffles on a Friday night.
“It’s said this is the most friendly club on the Gold Coast and I’m proud that we’ve made it that way.”