Auntie Johanna Smith (left) and Mary Poppe. Photos: Melkbos.net

Talk about a golden oldie. Auntie Johanna Smith is 88 years young. She is more active than some young people. She does creative needlework. She paints, and who knows what else too.

She lives in Mitchells Plain but she’s visiting her oldest son, who is a lecturer at the West Coast College and who lives in Melkbosstrand, at the moment. This morning she popped into Mary Poppe’s haberdashery shop in the Palm Centre.

It was her second visit to this wonderful shop. Her reasons were twofold: she needed to buy things, and she also wanted to show Mary the appliqué work she is doing, using material bought here.

In between looking at the wool and the buttons she tells us about herself.  Her grandmother reached the great age of 113. On the eighth of October auntie Johanna herself will turn 89. Her husband has been dead for 21 years. Auntie Johanna, and her artistic work, has been featured in the Plainsman newspaper. And rightly so, too. She sums up her life in a few words: “I keep busy.” After saying this the sprightly young-old lady takes her leave of the people in the shop.