Betty Abramowitz (100) believes you should live every day to the fullest.
“Even though there may be challenges, there is always a rainbow afterwards,” she said shortly before her 100th birthday on February 23.
Born Betty Narwitz in Kupiškis, Lithuania, she sailed into Cape Town as a four-year-old with her mother and older brother. Her father had come earlier to secure employment and accommodation. He went on to become a butcher.
Betty spoke only Yiddish on arrival in her new country but soon adapted and thrived, attending the Good Hope School.
She met her husband Maurice (Mockie) at a movie date organised by relatives.
They were married in 1952 and moved to Montagu in the Cape, where Mockie’s family owned a general dealer store in Bath Street. Two children followed, Brenda Zlotnick and Lauren Buckton.
The family lived in Montagu for 10 years before moving to Cape Town to give their daughters a good education.
When Mockie died 34 years ago, Betty relocated to Johannesburg to be nearer to her daughters.
Dance is one of Betty’s loves and at age 91, she was featured in a local newspaper as the oldest member of the line dancing classes held at Elphin Lodge, the Rand Aid retirement village where she has lived for the past 15 years.
Ballroom dancing was her preferred genre and she obtained her dance teaching qualification. She also did ballet. Baking was another of her loves and she won many trophies at shows for her baked treats, especially her legendary chocolate cake.
Off the dance floor and out of the kitchen, she enjoyed pottery, macrame, candlewicking, patchworking (bedspreads), sewing, knitting and even millinery (hat making).
Betty says she is happy to call Elphin Lodge home, knowing that her needs are taken care of, her surroundings are beautiful and she gets to meet different people and learn about their life stories.
Betty, who has two grandchildren, Kerri and Jared, and five great-grandchildren, Matt, Tyker, Judd, Georgia, and Joshua, celebrated her birthday with family and friends at a restaurant.
“Stay positive,” are her parting words.
At 91, Betty was the oldest dancer at Elphin Lodge’s weekly line dancing classes.
Betty Abramowitz on her 100th birthday.
