Bob Marriott's truck loaded with produce ready for the market.
Everyone together: Annie Marriott and her nine children at St John’s Church, Mount Waverley, in the early 1960s. The late Bob Marriott is third from the right. Wes Marriott is the fourth from the left.
THE only time the late Bob Marriott ever left Mount Waverley was when he went into a retirement village about 15 years ago.
Up until then, he had lived his whole life in the suburb, right next to his younger brother, Wes.
The older Mr Marriott loved Mount Waverley. He was an avid churchgoer and a freemason who enjoyed gardening after he retired in the late 1950s.
"He was well-respected and liked by people in the community," Wes, 84, says.
Mr Marriott died peacefully on October 3, only weeks before he would have turned 99. His passing was met with sadness by the Mount Waverley community.
Robert Leonard Marriott, affectionately known as Bob, was born on November 29, 1913. He was one of seven boys and two girls.
In 1927, while the Great Depression loomed, he left school and went to work as a market gardener.
"Things were pretty tough at home," Wes remembers. "On the day of his birthday, he left school and went home to pick up potatoes on the market garden. He always regretted that he never ever got his merit certificate issued because he had to go to work a couple of weeks before the school year ended."
Bob would spend the next 30 years working as a ploughman on the garden his family owned. He was also the family's market man and sold their home-grown vegetables in the city. It was a hard job; he had to be at the market by 4am and if he hadn't sold his lorry load within the hour, he'd be landed with it.
"It was pretty hard going," Wes says. "But obviously he kept good health because he was in wonderful shape. "Until about two years ago, he was as fit as trout. His wife had died about 10 years before that and he was able to cook the meals and keep himself occupied without any outside help."
Outside work, Bob's passion was horses. "If Bob went to the show, his really only interest was in the horses."
When he retired, Bob turned his attention to gardening and, when his wife died, he grew a rose garden in her memory.
Although the brothers were born 15 years apart, Wes says the two men were close.
"He was a good old bloke."