Rynpark woman celebrates 101st birthday
At 101 years of age, Jaco Sparrius is the oldest resident living in Rynpark.
The centenarian celebrated her 101st birthday with several family members and friends, in Rynpark Six, Rynfield.
She was born on February 16, 1916, in Leiderdorp, in the Netherlands.
Her son-in-law, Jan Bakker, was all smiles as he described Jaco’s long life.
“She moved to South Africa in 1955, with her husband and three children,” Bakker said.
Sparrius and her family settled in Vanderbijlpark, but moved to Windhoek, in Namibia a few years later.
They moved to Johannesburg for her husband, Eduard’s work in the early seventies.
Eduard died in 1976.
Bakker said his mother-in-law made a final move to Rynpark in 1995 to be close to her children and their families.
Sparrius has two sons, Hans and Ad and her children-in-law, Jan Bakker, Nelia Sparrius and Verona Sparrius.
She also has nine grandchildren, Jackie Hayter, Paula Oosthuizen, André Bakker, Carla Bakker, Saskia Koen, Erica Venter, Mariska van Brouwershaven, Stef Sparrius and Ilan Sparrius, as well as 16 great-grandchildren.
Jaco’s only daughter, Lottie Bakker died in September, last year.
When asked how she managed to live to such a ripe old age, she responded in her mother tongue:
“Het is een zegen van boven om zo oud te kunnen worden.”
This translates as: It is a blessing from above to have become so old.
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