‘Aunty Dinah’ turns 100
KENSINGTON’S oldest resident celebrated her 100th birthday yesterday alongside family and friends who showered her with love, flowers and prayers.
Dinah Fourie, or “Aunty Dinah” as she is affectionately known, is a resident at the Kensington Home for the Aged, and has outlived her husband and two sons in reaching her centenary.
She grew up in the small town of Greyton in the Overberg, and has been living in Kensington for the past 25 years.
At her birthday celebration yesterday she shared lunch and cake with her only surviving child, her daughter Dinah Phillips, as well as a grandchild and great-grandchild.
“I am feeling good about life. There is no secret to living to 100. All I can say is I don’t drink or smoke,” said Aunty Dinah as she smiled for photographs.
Going to church and praying are two of the most important things to Aunty Dinah at this point in her life, she said, and all residents at the home refer to her as a “God-fearing woman”.
Her great-grandson, Kieran Torode, 22, described Aunty Dinah as light-hearted.
“Whenever we visit, she is always making jokes, she is very funny,” Torode said.
Phillips, 73, said she felt privileged to still have a mother.
“At my age people don’t have their mothers any more. I feel privileged to be able to celebrate with her today. She was a home-maker and always took care of us. She wanted to study teaching, but at that time there no money,” Phillips said.