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THELMA Keith’s great grandfather was the German gardener who, pre-World War I, maintained the suburb that was renamed Belgian Gardens due to anti- German sentiment.
“There was a big swamp in there that never went dry even in the dry season and that’s where he got the water for his plants,” Thelma said.
“Then an important man came to see him one day and said ‘ we know what you’re doing is helping the town but Germany has invaded Europe and you are now the enemy.’
“We had to move way out of town to Mount Louisa.”
Thelma, 81, is now a great grandmother and was married to her husband Mervyn for 59 years before he died last year.
He worked on the railway until his career change returned Thelma to her gardening background.
“He started Keith’s Orchid Nursery,” she said. “And I said, ‘ you can’t just give your job away, where will our money come from?’.”
Keith’s Orchid Nursery, at the family home in Idalia, eventually became Keith’s Plant World.
“We had a shop in Flinders St too and we had lovely big orchids on the windows,” Thelma, who became a judge of orchid shows and ran her own florist, said.
Mervyn had an aneurysm and had to have a brain operation before he ended up with Alzheimer’s and had to move into a care home.
Thelma said that ultimately he did not recognise her.
“He used to ask me: ‘ do you think Thelma will come home tonight?’.”
“We would have been married 60 years this year and I was hoping to get a letter from the Queen.”
The couple had two sons, three years apart, who went to Oonoonba State School and went on to start Paul’s Milk in Townsville.
Thelma said most people don’t think she looks or sounds her age.
“I worked so hard, I didn’t have time to get old.”