Joy celebrates 100th birthday

VIBRANT and creative Joyce McDonald was surrounded by close friends and family as she celebrated her 100th birthday on Thursday, July 21. Her milestone celebration included a surprise party at the Bluff Haven Rest Home, and Joy said she felt blessed to have been surrounded by the people that she loved as she toasted to her centenary year.

Still able to create a warm and jovial vibe to those in her presence, Joyce, fondly known as Joy, is proud to be able to reach the milestone while still being able to use her creativity to continue to give back to those less fortunate than her.

With a heart for charity, Joy spends her days knitting and making clothing items for charity and children’s homes. The great-grandmother of two has lived true to the saying that age is just a number, and developed various creative interests, including painting, cross-stitching, embroidery and decoupage.
Looking back at her life, Joy says there was nothing more that she would have wanted to achieve, and she felt fulfilled as she reached 100 years.

“I was born in Richmond on July 21, 1922. I moved around quite a bit as my father was a station master. One of the memories still fresh in my mind was when I was in Warner Beach in 1939, when the war broke out. It was a scary time for us. I married the love of my life, Ron McDonald, in 1947. He had his Natal and Springbok colours for fishing. We would often go down to Transkei (East London) in a caravan which Ron had built us. He died in 1991. We share two children: Brian (74) and Jean (72). I also have three grandchildren and two great-grandsons who live in the UK,” said Joy.

After retiring from Coca-Cola as a credit manager in 1986, Joy began exploring her creativity and held craft classes during the school holidays at Woodlands Bowling Club, where she and Ron bowled for many years. In her spare time, or when she is not knitting for charity, Joy can be found reading books from the library or completing word searches.

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Spending a large part of her life (70 years) in Woodlands, where she moved to in 1950, Joy said she was pleased that she was surrounded by residents at the Bluff Haven Rest Home where she relocated in February 2020, and thanked them for honouring her on her birthday.

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