RITA Bodamer turned 100 on Monday, November 6, but passed away just hours after celebrating her centennial birthday with family and friends.
Bodamer was a long-time resident of the Glenwood-based retirement home, Mothwa Haven, whose general manager, Kasthurie Naicker, told the Berea Mail: “Rita always said she wanted a big birthday to celebrate her 100 years of life – we are very happy to have been able to give her that a day before she left us.”
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The Berea Mail spoke to Bodamer’s daughter about her mother’s long life. Laura Bell said her mother was born Maria Catharine Boodenin in Amsterdam in 1923 and had not only survived World War II but also the Dutch Famine in the Netherlands at a time when her firstborn child was just an infant.
The famine had a devastating impact on people living in Western Netherlands from 1944 to 1945.
“My parents were held as captives in Germany after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. They were not allowed to go back to the Netherlands until 1943.”
After the end of the Dutch Famine, Bodamer and her family moved to South Africa once her husband had obtained a job.
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Laura recounted how her parents were avid sailors who frequented the Durban Harbour and the Point Yacht Club. The couple stopped sailing after Emil, Bodamer’s husband, died of a sudden heart attack. After 63 years of marriage, Rita was widowed.
Eighteen years after the passing of her husband, also at Mothwa Haven Old Age Home, Bodamer was thrilled to have reached a milestone birthday.
But it was not to be for the mother of two who died just hours later.
“We are thankful that we got to celebrate Rita on her most special and rare birthday. It is not every day you get to meet someone who has been alive for a whole century. She was dearly loved and made a lot of friends because of her amazing sense of humour,” said Naicker before Bodamer’s passing.
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Bodamer left behind her two daughters, Laura and Elizabeth, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“We are sad at the passing of our beloved mother but find comfort in knowing that she has reunited with her husband, our father. We will miss her amazing sense of humour,” said Bell.
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