Mona celebrates 90 golden years
Benoni Old People's Home resident Mona Berriman celebrated her 90th birthday on May 7.
Mona was born to the late Pieter and Alice Venter, in 1924.
She is the eldest daughter in a family of 11 children.
She grew up and attended school in Brakpan and, during her teen years, the family moved to Benoni.
After her schooling she started her first job at Woolworths and made many wonderful friends there, all of whom, she said, she fondly remembers.
One of these friends introduced her to her husband, the late Tom Berriman, also an old Benonian.
They married in 1942 and had four children: Tom, Graham, Carol (now Archibald) and Alice (now Archibald). Carol and Alice married two brothers.
Mona is also blessed with 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
“She is a wonderful mom,” said Carol about her mother.
Mona has always enjoyed her home and family.
She and Tom built a house in Honiball Street, in Rynfield, which was one of the first houses to be built in that area.
She is a keen gardener and loves planting and growing roses.
At a local nursery she frequented, she realised her love for roses and gave her home the name of “Rose Cottage”.
Sewing is also a forté and Carol said she loved making clothes for herself and her family.
Her son, Graham, in his congratulatory speech, summed her up as “a hands-on mother who is always fair and kind and always puts her family first”.
Mona enjoyed her birthday celebration at Cherrylane Gourmet Café, with her family and friends.
