Mount Edgecombe resident celebrates a 100 years of life
Doreen Bourhill has become a well-known figure at the Ridgewood Retirement Village where she now lives.
AS Mount Edgecombe resident, Doreen Bourhill celebrates her 100th birthday on 17 March, she reflects on a happy and productive life.
Born on a farm in the northern Cape in 1921, Bourhill completed her schooling at a convent in Mafeking.
“I was one of five children. I was the second youngest and I am the only survivor of all of them,” she said.
“I left school when I was 18. The Catholic nuns are very rigid, I found them quite strict, but we were just lucky to be able to get an education. There was a public school in Mafeking and there was great competiton between the two schools,” she added.
Her education stood her in good stead as she served in an administrative capacity during the Second World War when she volunteered to join the South African Army and became a sergeant.
She spent time in Cairo, Egypt where she had to stand on the roof of her office counting German bombers flying overhead. Bourhill said she was working in the agricultural sector when the war started.
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“I belonged to a women’s association where we were given a form to fill in which said if necesarry we would be prepared to serve in the army. I remember when I was called to go, how my boss told me, ‘you are going from the frying pan into the fire.’ I took a train up to Pretoria and asked another girl on the train to show me where to go. We caught the bus and went to the baracks,” she recalled.
After the war she married Douglas Bourhill who was a water driller in Botswana. She lived in a tent for five years looking after her two young sons, Peter and David. After their stay in Botswana they moved to Colleen Bawn, a village in Zimbabwe where Douglas worked at the cement factory.
Three more children followed, Gill, Margie and Lois. Bourhill played an important role in the village, serving on the golf and tennis committees.
When she was 49 she was employed as a secretary.
After Douglas’s death Bourhill lived with her daughter Lois for 20 years before Lois and her husband moved to New Zealand. Bourhill was always keen on sport, playing tennis, golf and bowls. An avid gardener, she would send baskets of fresh vegetables and flowers to her neighbours.
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Her baking was legendary, every Friday she would make cake and biscuits for her family.Each one of her five children could order what they wanted for their birthday party, chocolate eclairs, meringues, Swiss roll and marble cake would appear as if by magic from the kitchen.
Bourhill has become a well-known figure at the Ridgewood Retirement Village where she now lives. She takes long walks each day, regular as clockwork.
Bourhill fills her day knitting jerseys for her 11 grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
“I love them all – they are responsible for keeping me busy with all this knitting,” she said.
She enjoys reading and doing crosswords and Suduko or watching golf and tennis on TV.
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