Gogo still going strong
GRAAFF-REINET - One of GraaffReinet’s oldest living centenarians, Gogo Maggie Nkomo, is living her best life with her family in West street.
Adding to that, she was recently given a clean bill of health by her doctor.
According to Nkomo the only thing that stops her from moving about are her aging legs. “I’m not sick, it’s just my legs. I don’t know whether they are stiff or what. But I don’t have pain. Sometimes I’ll feel maybe a bit unwell but the next day its always gone,” she says.
Nkomo was born on 17 September 1920 on a farm near Klipplaat. She married her husband, Toki George Nkomo, in 1959 and thereafter relocated to Graaff-Reinet in 1966 where they moved into their first home in Baartmans Square in Umasizake.
When asked to share her pearls of wisdom, she smiles and says: “Don’t drink and smoke too much. Avoid unnecessary friendships and always love your job. Honour your elders. My mother was a very strict women and she didn’t like any funny behavior. We were taught from a very young age to listen to our elders.”
Shortly after their move to the small town,
Nkomo started to work as a domestic worker and only retired in 2010. Her husband worked at Transnet on the train tracks but passed away in 1990 due to heart complications. Looking at Nkomo, wearing her Sunday best and bathed in sunlight, one can see that she is a very stylish and neat lady. When asked what piece of advice she wants to give to her grandchildren, she replied: “They must honour their elders. My mother was very strict.”
Out of her four children only one of her sons, Thami, is still alive after his sister, Nopathati, and brothers Lungile and
Fezile passed away. She also boasts seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Nkomo is currently living with her son who describes his mother as a God fearing and virtuous women.
“My mom managed to send me and my brother Fezile to school. In those years she only earned R6 but she managed to send us to university level. We were both teachers.”
Thami, who retired in 2013, says his mother is the pillar of their family.
“She has taken care of all her grandchildren and even now she is taking care of her great-grandchildren.”
Gogo Nkomo is expected to celebrate her 101 birthday on 17 September this year.