Elphin Lodge retirement village resident Molly Waddington celebrated her 100th birthday on September 9, 2020.
A long-time resident of the Rand Aid retirement village in Lyndhurst, Molly was born in Cape Town in 1920 and remembers seeing the troop ships passing through Cape Town Harbour during World War II.
“Molly exemplifies active ageing,” says Zabeth Zühlsdorff, Rand Aid’s GM Services and Advance Division. “She still lives independently in her own cottage, drives her car around the village and is as bright as a button.”
During her working life, Molly was employed at Barclays Bank, Strand Street Branch, in Cape Town.
On September 16, 1944, just before the end of war, she was married Edgar and soon thereafter they moved to Johannesburg where they bought a house in Mondeor, then a new suburb south of Central Johannesburg.
After 47 years of marriage, Edgar passed away in 1991. Two years later, Molly sold their home and moved to Elphin Lodge in 1993. Phase 4 of the village was newly built and she joined Norman Chilvers and Maurie and Elaine van Heerden as the early residents of Phase 4.
“Molly has lived happily at Elphin Lodge for 27 years and has made special friends who make her life happy and contented,” says village manager Helen Petrie.
Molly has a daughter, Brenda, who lives in Benoni, and three grandchildren – Sean, who lives in South Africa; Bronwyn, who lives in Australia; and Elroyd, who lives in Prague with his two boys.
Molly Waddington recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
