A life and career with no limits

After meeting his future wife Jean during his years of national service, plans to immigrate started taking shape as her parents were set on moving overseas in 1952.

“They tossed a coin to try their luck in Sydney or come to Perth – it came up heads and they came to Perth,” Lawrence said.

Upon Lawrence’s arrival in Perth, he found jobs were limited. Lawrence decided to do the rounds by approaching prospective employers and his persistence paid off with an automotive spare parts role, later moving up to Spare Parts Manager for VW agents.

Lawrence married Jean at Trinity Church in 1955, and she went on to work for a “frock shop” and modelled Christian Dior before opening and operating her own successful clothing store.

Always willing to take a chance, over the years Lawrence turned his hand to a wide variety of vocations including running his own hardware store in Doubleview, setting up a business selling prefabricated garages, venturing into men’s fashions with shops in Gosnells and Maddington, and rising to managing director of a finance company.

Retiring in 1990, it didn’t take long before he returned to work, owning and operating a liquor store and post office in Willagee.

“I retired from everything at 60, but retirement didn’t suit me – there was nothing to do, and I missed the cut and thrust of business,” Lawrence said.

One of his regrets during his career was the opportunity to invest in a little film titled ‘Crocodile Dundee’ which went on to become the highest-grossing Australian film at the worldwide box office.

“My wife said no, but if I had invested the $100,000 it would have returned $1.2 million – she was only little, but my wife managed me,” Lawrence said with a laugh.

Lawrence has lived with his daughter Melissa for several years, and sadly his wife Jean passed away three years ago after 66 years of marriage. Always looking out for her Dad’s interests, Melissa welcomed an idea from a relative who suggested that Juniper could provide support.

“My nephew was over, and he could see how stressed I was – he recommended we look into Home Care,” Melissa said.

“I don’t like leaving Dad alone, but now with Community Support Worker Damien coming over for three hours, I go and have a singing lesson which I just love.”

For the past year, Damien has sat with Lawrence each Tuesday to talk about an array of topics ranging from astronomy and physics to classic movies. The sessions are equally as rewarding for Lawrence and Damien, as the duo share stories about their own history and the occasional film recommendation.

“We get on famously, he’s amusing in his way – I’m very happy where I am now,” Lawrence said.

As well as weekly respite, Lawrence is now more easily able to connect with his community after a Juniper Occupational Therapist prescribed a wheelchair through his Home Care Package. This mobility has enabled his grandson to take him out for a coffee, which was a recent highlight for the nonagenarian.

While Lawrence has already achieved so much, his loving family, weekly Juniper Community Support Worker visits and passions for cryptic crosswords, Sudoku and classic western movies continue to keep him happy and busy in retirement.