AUTHOR DEBUT IS ICING ON HIS CAKE
BERT Drury celebrates his 103rd birthday on Friday – and the icing on the cake is the fact he’s now the author of a book detailing his incredible life story.
Since moving to the Gold Coast at a spritely 88, Mr Drury has kept himself busy doing odd jobs at his retirement village, Galleon Gardens in Currumbin Waters.
The centenarian attributes his longevity to never drinking or smoking, eating modestly and staying “with the one girl (Jean) all my life”.
Mr Drury worked as a coal miner and then at a rubber works before joining the RAAF in 1943, where he served until 1946.
A passionate carpenter by trade, he started out with friends in a joinery business after the war, and worked there for more than 27 years before taking a role as a foreman for another seven years.
With a love of fishing, beekeeping, shooting and hockey, Mr Drury said he had always worked hard to keep his body and mind active.
Outside of his work and family commitments, he’s continued to nurture his other great love – motorbikes. Such is his passion for two wheels, when he turned 100, veteran
motorcyclists and members of the BSA Club, Military Brotherhood and Ulysses Motorcycle Club took him for a spin.
This year he’s celebrating his birthday alongside two other residents from Galleon Gardens – Doreen McDonald and Moira Martin – who also
became authors this year thanks to a project run by the Bolton Clark Research Institute.
The Life Stories initiative uses a biographical storytelling approach to help older Australians tell their stories, along with photographic memorabilia, in
book form. Research fellow Xanthe Golenko said the work went beyond the names and dates on a genealogy chart to bring a person’s past to life.
“It helps residents and clients enhance their sense of identity and self-esteem, encourages better communication and closer
relationships and helps us better understand people’s needs and wishes (and) provide care that suits them.”
Each project involves a series of one-hour interview sessions with the person and their nominated family members over five weeks.
“Understanding more
about clients’ and residents’ life stories is also helping our teams to form even stronger connections,” Ms Golenko said.
The Life Stories project is being conducted across four Bolton Clarke communities in Queensland and NSW and with home support clients.