Happy to be alive at 90
After falling in love with a South African woman, he proposed and travelled back to Bombay to arrange leave to get married.
Mr Peter Smith, a resident at the Ron Smith Care Centre, recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
Mr Smith is originally from England and came to South Africa while working for a shipping company that operated between London and Bombay.
“In choosing a life at sea, I was following in my father’s footsteps. He was a ship pilot with the Merchant Navy and it was his job to expertly steer ships into harbours,” said Mr Smith.
After falling in love with a South African woman, he proposed and travelled back to Bombay to arrange leave to get married.
“The company put me on a ship headed for Durban, where I hoped Jean was eagerly awaiting me,” he said.
The newly-weds spent some time travelling around Africa in a 1939 Chevrolet and this idyllic get-away convinced the young man that he did not want to return to England with its “cold weather and post-war rationing”.
A career as a government mine surveyor followed, as did two daughters and two sons, who have since made Mr Smith a grandfather many times over.
