105 year-old Oriole could be Sharks/Springboks oldest supporter
Her hobbies included cake icing, sewing and watching sport, especially rugby and she is an avid Sharks supporter.
One of South Africa’s oldest citizens has celebrated her 105th birthday.
Oriole Heysen was surrounded by family and friends as she reached the milestone birthday, at Mbango Valley Association last Friday.
Oriole was born in Benoni on the East Rand on September 26 in 1920 and did her junior school years there.
Her father, being a miner, relocated the family to a gold mine in the Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga).
Oriole completed high school at Belfast High School.
On occasions, learners from the surrounding farming community, including Oriole, would ride to school on horseback.
At high school she excelled in hockey and was proud of the fact that she passed her matric maths – after many hours of study!
After school she decided to be a nurse and was successfully enrolled at the nursing college at Addington Hospital in Durban.
However, she soon realised that nursing wasn’t a good fit for her – inserting a needle into a patient’s arm or buttocks hurt her more than the patient – and so she opted for a career in secretarial and office administration.
She married and spent her early years in the Eastern Cape where her twins Llewellyn and Lyall were born.
As a result of the war, Oriole and the twins relocated from Engcobo (Eastern Cape) to the gold fields on the West Rand, where her parents were employed in the mining industry.
In 1944, while living in Venterspost, Oriole gave birth to a third son, Denzil.
In the 1950s the family frequently spent the July holidays in Margate and fell in love with the South Coast.
In 1961, her sons moved from the gold fields to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Oriole moved down to the family cottage in Margate and was happily employed at the Margate Hotel.
After some time, she moved to Rhodesia to be closer to her sons.
She initially ran a boarding house and later managed the Bindura Country Club.
While living in Rhodesia, Oriole married George Heysen, also from Margate, and the two successfully managed the catering services of the BSAP Club in Salisbury (Harare).
By 1980 the family had all relocated back to South Africa, their love for the South Coast had brought Oriole and her three sons, now retired, and their wives back to Margate.
Oriole enjoyed travel, visiting various countries, including England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Her hobbies included cake icing, sewing and watching sport, especially rugby and she is an avid Sharks supporter – the family joked she would have made a wonderful selector for the Springboks.
She enjoyed doing the Herald crossword and was a successful ‘Wally’ winner.
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