Book keeper in the family furniture business, Gerstl, from early 1950s until the 1980s. Her mother, Olga Kafka and brother Paul Kafka emigrated to Australia and the Gerstl family briefly lived with them in Lindfield when they arrived in 1947. The two businesses were kept strictly separate, but the families were socially close. From 1939-1946 Charlotte ran a cake shop in Shanghai that was a centre for European social life.