Dora van Schie celebrated her 100th birthday at St Georges Village in Bedfordview on August 12.
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Dora now joins three other centenarians living at St Georges.
Eight of Dora’s family members joined her during the celebrations.
They included an aunt and niece from Holland, one of her sons, Wim, from Australia and Pieter from Atlasville and her daughter, Maria, from Bedfordview.
Two of Dora’s grandchildren and a niece from Dubai also attended her party.
Dora was born Theodora Rorsing on August 11, 1922, in Ankeween, a small village close to Amsterdam in Holland.
Dora was the eldest of 13 children and had to leave school at a young age to support her family.
She worked for an uncle doing washing and ironing and later started working as a housekeeper.
In 1948 Dora was engaged to Piet van Schie but he left for South Africa shortly afterwards.
In 1949, Dora followed suit and she travelled to South Africa by boat from Holland.
The trip to Cape Town took 21 days and then three more days to Durban where Piet met Dora at the harbour.
On arrival, Dora and Piet were married in a local Catholic church.
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Piet worked as a mechanic at Grovenor Motors and the two lived in Homestead Park, Bez Valley and Kensington.
In 1983 the family moved to Roodepoort.
Dora and Piet had seven children, Pieter, Henry, Karel, Johan, Theo, Maria and Wim. In June 2011, Piet died.
Dora moved into the care centre at St George’s Village in November 2017.
Today, Dora has 22 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
She loved travelling and wildlife. She and Piet travelled extensively.
At the age of 98 in 2020 Dora had planned another trip abroad but her plans were cancelled due to the pandemic.
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