“I am there to amuse them. Somebody has to look after the oldies,” he said, sitting down in his Restown Retirement Village unit having just finished one of his three shifts at the Yalukang Aged Care home.
Tom, and wife Carmel, are within walking distance of REDHS — having lived at the Restdown for almost 20 years.
Tom is 95 years young and returned to Rochester with his wife of 67 years after selling his Hay coffee lounge.
"We lived in Darling St, Echuca, before I retired after 33 years on the railways. After we sold up at Hay house prices had gone up so much in Echuca we couldn’t afford to buy there.
“We decided on Rochester,” he said.
Tom was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 and to assist his wife in caring for him they decided to move into the retirement village not long after.
“I made the ‘mistake’ of going to a doctor, I hadn’t been to one in 20 years,” he said.
He has spent almost the entire time the couple has lived at Restdown volunteering at REDHS.
The couple has six children, five girls and a boy that range from 59 to 64, but none live in Rochester.
The closest of their children lives at Bendigo and was this year’s citizen of year. She is Alannah McGregor, domestic violence campaigner and a founder of Bendigo’s suicide awareness and prevention group.
Tom said he loved Rochester, in particular the manners of its younger generation.
“What really struck me about the town, when we first came here, was the manners of the kids in the town.
“A kid from here will give you a wave of recognition for stopping at the pedestrian crossing. It’s a little thing, but well appreciated,” he said.
Still driving, Tom and Carmel act as couriers every weekend for three of their village neighbours.
"The neighbours are very good, we take a few of them to Moama every Saturday.
"The community works together really well,’’ he said.
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