A resident of Rand Aid’s Ron Smith Care Centre, Ms Betty Haughton, celebrated her 100th birthday on April 19.
A tea party was held on the Saturday before her birthday.
A number of family and friends attended the event, where she was presented with 100 pink roses to mark the occasion.
One of Ms Haughton’s fondest memories is flying from England to South Africa after her husband, Mr Norman Atkins, who was a major in the army, accepted a position in South Africa with an insurance company. They had four weeks to sell everything before they left to fly south with a four-week-old baby in tow.
Ms Haughton remembers that the journey took five days and four nights, and they had to stop every four hours or so to refuel. In the seven decades she has lived in South Africa, she has never been homesick, although she has returned three times to visit family in England.
London-born and raised, Ms Haughton, who has two sons and a brood of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, was the youngest of six children.
Her first husband, Mr Atkins, died in 1993. She later married Mr Leslie Haughton.
A keen bowls and bridge player in her younger days, she now attends occupational therapy at the care centre. She enjoys a range of arts and crafts that keep her mind and fingers nimble.
“She is the custodian of family tales and will often correct me when I get my facts wrong,” said her niece, Sheila Tebbit.
She said when she attended St Mary’s, her aunt was always at school events to support her and her widowed mother.
“She worked for many years as the secretary of Linksfield Primary School. When I think of her home, I think of classical music and encyclopaedias,” said Sheila.
