Elphin Lodge resident celebrates 100th birthday
“Though there may be challenges, there is always a rainbow afterwards.”
One hundred-year-old Elphin Lodge resident Betty Abramowitz believes everyone should live each day to the fullest.
“Though there may be challenges, there is always a rainbow afterwards,” she said shortly before her 100th birthday on February 23.
Born Betty Narwitz in Kupiškis, Lithuania, she sailed into Cape Town harbour as a four-year-old with her mother and older brother.
Her father had come earlier to secure employment and accommodation. He became a butcher.
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When she arrived in her new country, Betty only spoke Yiddish but soon adapted and thrived when she started attending the Good Hope School.
She met her husband Maurice, affectionately nicknamed Mockie, at a movie date organised by relatives.
Betty and Maurice got married in 1952 and moved to Montagu in the Cape, where Mockie’s family owned a general dealer store on Bath Street.
The couple had two children, Brenda Zlotnick and Lauren Buckton.
The family lived in Montagu for 10 years before moving to Cape Town to give their daughters a good education.
After Mockie died 34 years ago, Betty relocated to Johannesburg to be closer to her daughters.
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Dance is one of Betty’s loves and at 91, she was featured in the Rosebank Killarney Gazette as the oldest member of the line dancing classes held at Elphin Lodge.
Betty has lived in the Rand Aid retirement village for the past 15 years.
Ballroom dancing was her preferred genre, and she obtained her dance teaching qualification. She also did ballet.
Baking was another of Betty’s loves, for which she won many trophies at shows for her baked treats, especially her legendary chocolate cake.
Off the dance floor and out of the kitchen, she enjoyed pottery, macrame, candlewicking, patchworking (bedspreads), sewing, knitting and even millinery (hat making).
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Betty says she is happy to call Elphin Lodge home, knowing that her needs are taken care of, her surroundings are beautiful, and she gets to meet different people and learn about their life stories.
Betty, who has two grandchildren Kerri and Jared, and five great-grandchildren, Matt, Tyker, Judd, Georgia, and Joshua, celebrated her birthday with family and friends at a restaurant.
Sharing words of advice, she encouraged others to remain positive.
