Rosa Celebrates a Life of Love and Service

“It’s always important to have your hair done and your lipstick on,” that is the advice of 101-year-old Rosa Bock a resident of Bolton Clarke Cazna Gardens residential aged care community in Sunnybank Hills.  

Rosa celebrated her 101^st Birthday on 31 October surrounded by friends and family where the site held a morning tea in her honour complete with a beautiful cake.

Rosa was born in Hackney, London on 31 October 1916, on her 100^th Birthday last year her niece stood outside the place where Rosa was born and took a video to show her what the place looked like today.

She moved to Australia with her family when she was six-years-old settling in to Woolloongabba and can clearly remember the Story Bridge being built.

Rosa was a nurse in the Second World War and served in Brisbane moving around South East Queensland wherever she was needed.

“I was up in Caloundra when the Centaur ship was torpedoed by the Japanese, I can still remember that day very clearly and I tried to return there for the anniversary as long as I could,” she said.

She was a member of the Army Women’s Nursing Association and a Chorister at St Mary’s Anglican Church.

Today Rosa is a popular resident of the Cazna Gardens community and especially enjoys concerts and sing-a-longs. The staff tell of how she has a beautiful opera voice.

Across the organisation Bolton Clarke supports over 150 Centenarians through at home support services, retirement living and residential aged care. Rosa is a member of Bolton Clarke’s 100+ Club which aims to create new opportunities to honour and record the lives of our residents, build relationships and reinforce their sense of identity and continuation of their story.

Over the past year the organisation has been working with our Centenarians to gather their stories and their memories of what has happened in their lives over the past 100 years.

Find out more about Bolton Clarke.