A Laidley aged care community’s newest resident is also its oldest resident.
Not many people move into aged care after they turn 100, but Cecil Sempf recently made the move to at the age of 102 years.
Cecil was born in Marburg on 3 November 1921, to parents Ernest and Esther. He went to school in Forest Hill and has spent most of his life in the Lockyer Valley area.
When interviewed by The Lockyer and Somerset Independent newspaper on his 100th birthday, Cecil remarked that he wanted to be called Bill as “that sounds like a real man’s name.”
Cecil left school at 14 to work on the family farm, 180 acres at Lockrose on which crops were grown and a small dairy also operated.
Cecil was always creating things when he was a child and had a natural talent for building anything mechanical.
The self-taught welder eventually started his own engineering business in Gatton, where he made farming equipment before retiring.
“I manufactured various types of machinery and equipment such as three-wheeled tractors, seeders and planters, among other things,” Cecil said.
Additionally, Cecil constructed two boats – measuring 7.6m and 12m in length – for use in floodwaters.
Cecil married his wife Esme at St Augustine’s Church of England in Brisbane in 1949. The couple had two sons, Lyall and Shane.
In retirement, Cecil and Esme toured Australia in a Holden vehicle, travelling up the centre of the continent and staying in motels throughout the country.
Cecil loves classic motor vehicles. He owned a 1964 Ford Fairlane before buying a Chevrolet, which was originally from California, a decade ago. Cecil displayed his vintage car at his first car rally at the age of 98.
After finishing work, Cecil avidly researched the history of the Sempf family and also wrote an account of his own life.
Cecil is the second centenarian to move into a Carinity aged care residence this year, after 103-year-old in Brisbane.
