Mabel Simpson shortly before turning 100 last year. Photos: Melkbos.net

Centenarian Mabel Simpson from Melkbosstrand will be going out for lunch this Mother’s Day. This is not unusual at all. At the great old age of 100 years she still dresses elegantly, still has her silver hair done just so, and still dances until she is stiff.

On Sunday Mabel will be setting off for Kromme Rhee near Stellenbosch with her daughter and son-in-law, Emmerencia and Hennie Smith, for Mother’s Day lunch. “It’s going better with her than with me,” Emmerencia tells Melkbos.net with a laugh. She adds that her mother has only one complaint. “She is stiff all over. From dancing!”

Still gets about
Mabel was never going to go to an old age home. She lives with Emmerencia and Hennie, and has a full life. “My brother and his children were here last weekend,” Emmerencia says.  “They brought a guitar and made music and sang. And they danced with my mother. Music lifts her spirit up. She goes everywhere with us. She goes to church and when it’s time to worship she puts up her little hands.”

Mabel dances with her son Niel.

Kept her age a secret until recently
According to Emmerencia her mother kept her age a secret “until she was 98, 99, 100! She never felt old. She always had younger friends. Old age was never an issue for her. When I take her to Sea Park to Elmarie to have her hair done she can’t stop staring at the people. She’s only now coming to terms with that she is a 100.” Emmerencia  pauses for a moment and then says, fondly. “We’ve spent so much time together.”

Mabel’s golden youth
Melkbos.net has also written about Mabel’s youth  on Durbanville Hills Wine Estate, which was of course called Roosboom in those years, and about an occasion on the eve of her hundredth birthday on which she also danced.