At 90-years-of-age Reg Thompson has no intention of slowing down.
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And the hard working community member says it's now more important than ever to look after each other and "do your bit" for your community.
Reg, who has lived in Nowra with his wife Judy since the late 1970s, has over the years been involved in numerous local organisations.
He's been a strong supporter of the St Vincent de Paul Society, St Michael's Catholic Church, Shoalhaven Community Housing, Shoalhaven Neighbourhood Centre and Crossroads just to name a few.
Reg is a committed volunteer, whether it be undertaking his role assisting the priests at St Michael's Church Sunday mass, making visits to local nursing homes to allow for communion to take place or volunteering in the St Vincent de Paul shops.
He's sat on numerous boards, helping a variety of organisations and ultimately countless people in the Shoalhaven.
"I have always liked helping people in need or people with disabilities," he said.
"And in these challenging times I think it is important we look after each other."
And right beside him has been Judy, who he describes as "an incredible support".
He says he intends to continue his voluntary work and the "only slowing down" he'll be doing is his driving, proud that he still holds his full license.
Now, more than ever, it's important to look after each other and do your bit for your community.
- Reg Thompson
He's been a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society for more than 50 years and involved in a number of Nowra-based projects, saying getting the men's hostel, John Purcell House, up and running along with the Jim Da Silva Farm project were among the highlights.
"Getting them up and running was definitely a highlight along with getting community housing started," he said.
"Situations where we recognised a need and there was a positive outcome.
"But there have been so many things over the years."
Born May 18, 1932 at Paddington, Reg grew up at Bondi, attended Waverley College and joined what in those days was the PMG [now know as Telstra], which back then had the post office under its control.
He worked in the post office in the Sydney Metropolitan area - Bondi and Paddington.
Starting as he puts it the "bottom rung" in 1950-51 as a postman, he "learnt the ropes" and progressed to the mail activities, which led to the postal side and worked up to senior postal officer, in charge of receipt and dispatch of mails.
Far from his original dreams of becoming a jockey, which were dashed when a good family friend who was a jockey, Jimmy Duncan, was killed in a race fall just before he was to start his apprenticeship.
"My parents were originally in favour of me becoming a jockey, but after Jimmy, mum said no more," he said.
"I was still at school, probably about 15, I suppose."
There was a strong family connection with horses, his brother trained trotters.
"Horses were always in the family - my grandfather and grandmother had a lot to do with horses, they were both experienced horse people," he said.
"They originally came from the Riverina."
And it was through that love of horses that he met and later married his wife, Judy.
Despite living at Bondi, on weekends he would go to a riding school at Mount Druitt to ride horses.
"People wanted to learn how to ride so that became my recreation on weekends - teaching people to ride," he said.
Judy, who was born in Albury, grew up in Junee and was in Sydney nursing, went along to the school a couple of times with her sister and met Reg and "as they say the rest is history".
After the couple married in 1966 they relocated to Albury where Reg continued to work in the post office and stayed there until the late 1970s.
The couple had six children - Brenda was born in 1967, Paul 1969, Ann 1970, Luke was stillborn in 1972, Bernard was born in March 1974 and passed away at just seven weeks, and Peter in 1976.
In 1978 he transferred to Nowra as the senior mail officer.
"That's where our life in Nowra started," he said.
Reg stayed with the post office until January 1989 when their son Paul had an accident that left him a quadaplegic and Reg took early retirement.
I was disappointed with the number of people in nursing homes who didn't have any visitors. And I tried to become their family or give them something to lighten their life up and be that someone who visits them or talks to them.
- Reg Thompson
At the time Judy was working with the Department of Community Services.
"Paul stayed at Prince Henry Hospital for a long period of time so I was up and back there a lot - staying most of the week," he said.
Reg, after officially retiring in August 1989, apart from caring for things at home and helping Paul, got involved in community activities.
He has been a member of St Vincent de Paul Society for 56 years, something he began in Albury and continued when he moved to Nowra.
He's always been involved in the St Michael's Church Nowra, acting as an acolyte - assisting the priest with his Sunday masses and general parish work.
"That involved visitations to the nursing home, taking communion to the people who are housebound or in nursing homes," he said.
In fact, he's been going to the nursing home in Bomaderry every Sunday since 1985.
But COVID-19 put a halt on his visits, something Reg admits has "been terribly hard".
"Both for the residents and myself, " he added.
"I miss just the catching up with people each week.
"There are a lot of people in nursing homes, their family put them in there and then it's like leaving the dog at the kennels - they walk away and forget about them.
"I was disappointed with the number of people who didn't have any visitors. And I tried to become their family or give them something to lighten their life up and be that someone who visits them or talks to them.
"The children would say to me 'how are the oldies today?' However, some of the 'oldies' are younger than I am.
"I think it's something that [visiting] is really needed - there is not enough of it."
Reg has been undertaking his visits for more than 30 years and there have been attempts to give him a break but no one will take on the role consistently.
"I also go during the week," he said. "Anytime I would get a phone call.
"Sometimes people would ask for me to go and see them.
"You build up friendships with people. They trust you."
'How are the oldies today?' but some of the 'oldies' are younger than I am.
- Reg Thompson
He admits one of the hard parts of his visits is seeing people he has made a connection with pass away.
"Quite a few parishioners I've tried to get interested in hospital visitation and nursing home visits say they find that hard, they can't handle coming back one day and their resident is not there," he said.
"That happens to everyone - it just becomes a way of life.
At St Vincent de Paul he helps people with their needs.
"I just help people with their needs and quite often people are looking for accommodation or the standard of living they can't afford, helping with food vouchers and the such" he said.
Reg is one of the many volunteers who work out of the Nowra store in Berry Street, and had previously worked in the former Plunkett Street shop as well. He has held positions on the board, including Nowra president and centres presidents looking after other Shoalhaven operations.
Another organisation he was involved with was Interagency - a group where all the "different agencies in town would meet monthly and recognise needs and discuss what to do where".
That group led to the start of Shoalhaven Community Housing, a fact Reg is proud to have been part of.
He was part of the initial submission to government to get funds to start Shoalhaven Community Housing, which today has morphed into Southern Cross Housing.
"We started with just seven properties. Our aim was to provide alternative housing to what the Department of Housing were providing," he said,
Reg was president of that organisation for a number of years.
"John Purcell House, the men's refuge, was one of the projects that also came into being through the Interagency group and then later Jim De Silva Farm," he added.
He said being part of Interagency led him to other local groups - he was on the board of the Shoalhaven Neighbourhood Centre, worked with Crossroads, a social group for people with disabilities, Interchange to assist families who have a disabled member to provide respite and Friday Friends, a group of people with disabilities who met regularly.
And there's bound to be plenty of others we have left out.
He said Paul's accident had also led to them becoming involved in some of the organsiations.
And it's not just the organisations he's involved in - he also keeps a close eye on his neighbours and neighbourhood.
"We are lucky we have lived in a wonderful part of town for 45 plus years and we have had some wonderful neighbours," he said.
"Everyone looks after each other - during the pandemic our young neighbours made sure we had everything we needed which was wonderful."
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