Resident of retirement home in Riviera turns 100
"Above all the grace and blessings, the Lord has been my compass for the past 100 years."
Ons Tuis Retirement Home in Riviera marked 1 June this year as a historical milestone when Willie Smit moved to their retirement home at the age of 99.
He is celebrating his 100th birthday today [10 June].
As the middle child of six siblings, Willem Frederick Jacobus Smit was born on 10 June, 1921 in the Witwatersrand district near Boksburg.
A childhood memory he recalls is the distance they had to walk to school.
“Most of the time I had to carry my younger sister, Hanna, on my back,” he said.
According to Smit, the toughest time of his life was during the Second World War when he struggled to find a job.
“I started my trade at Simmer & Jack mines and worked on the goldfields mines at Welkom until my forties,” Smit added.
He then spends his most joyous years, as he refers to them, with his beloved family in the Highveld where he farmed with sheep and cattle.
Willie and his wife, Henriëtte, also retired to Hartenbos for a few years before they, due to aging, had to relocate to Pretoria.
The couple was blessed to have had three daughters and one son, seven grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
The investment made in educating South Africa’s youth acclaims to be the most progress he has seen in his lifetime.
“I grew up in a time when there was a huge shortage of craftsman, men who could meaningfully work with their hands, such as fitters and turners.
“By motivating the youth South Africa it has bridged this gap and people started seizing a career.”
His birthday wish is for people to love one another because, “if you cannot go to heaven you are in trouble”.
According to him, people must learn how to love and respect each other unconditionally and to always offer help whenever they can.
“I have experienced a life filled with sadness, happiness and joy. Above all the grace and blessings, the Lord has been my compass for the past 100 years,” he concluded.
Manager of Ons Tuis, Sr Sonya Stander said they pray God’s blessing onto him in the extraordinary year ahead.
“He certainly is the oldest resident we have ever admitted at any of our Ons Tuis homes,” she said.
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