Cape Town - This Cape Town granny celebrated her 102nd birthday with family and friends on Sunday.
Mina September, from Bellville, was born on a farm in 1920 and says her secret to life has always been a passage from the Bible: “Honour your father and your mother so you may have a long life.”
September is still very vocal and as fit as a fiddle, and her family describes her health as being in ‘tip top shape’.
Last year, September contracted Covid-19 after five people within the household tested positive.
According to her family, she has not had any health issues or been reinfected with the virus.
September shared her knowledge about the Spanish flu that devastated the world from February 1918 to April 1920.
The Spanish flu was an influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus and infected an estimated 500 million people – about a third of the world’s population – in four successive waves.
Descendants of the 1918 H1N1 virus make up the influenza viruses we’re fighting today.
“I also had the Spanish flu during that time. I overcame it, and I had Covid-19 and overcame it,” she said.
On Sunday, family and friends gathered to celebrate their matriarch and held a delicious lunch.
“I have nine children, seven boys and two girls, from which I have 27 grandchildren, 49 great-grandchildren and 24 great-great-grandchildren,” September said previously.
However, another great-great grandchild has been added to the bunch and another is on the way.
In 1955 September married her darling husband, Esau September, and they were married until his passing in 1996.
September describes herself as an exemplary person for others and always treats people with kindness.
While she may not know much about technology, September has urged the youth to remain obedient to their parents or guardians and to remain in church, as it was how she was reared.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL