Kitty turns 99, still lives life to the full

Elphin Lodge Retirement Village resident Kitty Venn, aged 99, is still enjoying life to the fullest.

Venn was born Doreen Ruby Mole on 5 April, 1917, in Swakopmund, South-West Africa. The fourth of 12 children born to Alice and Alfred Mole, her father was a magistrate and the family eventually grew up in Hamilton Street, Pretoria.

As there was a tennis court at their home, she was a good tennis player who only gave up playing tennis just before she turned 80. After completing her schooling at Pretoria High School for Girls, Venn worked for Barclays Bank as a secretary.

After the war, she married Oliver Claude Venn, a quantity surveyor who was a pilot during the war, and they moved to Sandringham, which was a suburb developed for ex-servicemen.

Venn moved to Elphin Lodge Retirement Village in 2000 after her husband died.

Last year, after a fall and a subsequent hip replacement, she still attends ‘gym’ at the hall on Mondays.

“Everyone is most helpful, caring and friendly and mom has made new friends but still has her old friends (including the bridge girls) from the Elphin Lodge cottages. She is fortunate to have a sister, Merle Price, and a sister-in-law, Benita Mole, living at Elphin Lodge as well. Many thanks to everyone and all the Staff at Elphin Lodge Complex,” said daughter, Carol Cunningham.

Venn has four children, 17 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren scattered across South Africa and around the world, with whom she is in frequent contact.

“Named Kitty for her beautiful, long, straight black hair, my mom is a generous, kind, loving and amazing lady with a heart of gold,” said Cunningham.