Gold Coast’s oldest resident Gertie Booth celebrates 108th birthday
One of the oldest people on the Gold Coast has celebrated her 108th birthday with players from the Geelong Cats AFL team wishing her a good day. SEE THE VIDEO.
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ONE of the oldest people on the Gold Coast has celebrated her 108th birthday with players from the Geelong Cats AFL team wishing her a good day.
Gertrude “Gertie” Booth was born in Leeds, England on Wednesday 14 June, 1911.
She migrated to Australia with her late husband Samuel in February 1950 to start her life in Melbourne after enduring both World Wars and the Great Depression.
Gertie said she started her life working as a tailor before marrying Samuel in 1938.
REAL PEOPLE OF THE GOLD COAST: GERTIE BOOTH
A year later, he was sent off to war for four years and Gertie became an aircraft spotter and then an air aid warden.
Her first memories of Australia was the Melbourne bushfires in 1952 and becoming an avid fan of the AFL team the Geelong Cats — a team she has been fond of for almost 70 years.
She moved to the Gold Coast when her husband died in his 70s so she moved to the city to be closer to her two nieces who are daughters of her youngest sister.
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She now lives at Blue Care Elanora Pineshaven Aged Care Facility in Palm Beach.
Although Gertie has lived through a lot of monumental things, she never had children and never learnt to drive a car.
Asked how she lived to be 108, she said: “It’s just the way things happened. If there is a secret, I don’t know what it is.”
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“(I) love the sunshine, a glass of champagne and fish and chips by the water,” she said.
Gertie was set to celebrate her birthday within the past month, but fell ill.
She celebrated her birthday on the past Thursday wearing a crown while she ate cake and enjoyed a tea.
One of the carers at Pineshaven Karen Bethune said: “(Gertie) is the most beautifully quiet spoken person and she has never once complained.”
Originally published as Gold Coast’s oldest resident Gertie Booth celebrates 108th birthday
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