DURBAN - Daily News subscriber and Newlands East resident Alice Joan Fernandez was in a jovial mood ahead of her 103rd birthday on Friday.
At the weekend, she celebrated her birthday with friends, residents and family members.
Fernandez has five daughters, two of whom have passed on, 19 grandchildren and more than 30 great-grandchildren.
“I am 103 not out and I hope to score many more,'' the cricket fan quipped during an interview with the Daily News on Sunday. Her daily activities include praying as soon as she awakens and then reading the newspaper, without a pair of spectacles, said her daughter, Joan Holborn, 71.
Fernandez has a bowl of mealie meal porridge or oats and a cup of black tea for breakfast before watching comedies, cricket or tennis, or listening to soul music on television.
Fernandez also enjoys the company of her great-grandchildren after they finish their day at school.
She spoke of how she was pampered by them when they made her bed, sometimes rubbed her feet and danced and sang for her.
Fernandez was born in Durban and grew up at St Philomena’s Children’s Home on the Berea. She lived in Sydenham Road with her parents and then when she married she went to live in Booth Avenue in Sydenham, before moving to Newlands East in 1979.
In her youth, she worked in a clothing factory before joining her father, Nelson, in his tailor shop, A S Fernandez, in Pine Street – now renamed Monty Naicker Road. Framed pictures of Fernandez in her infancy, as a teenager and as an adult are displayed in the lounge. Newspaper articles of her 100th and 101st birthdays are also laminated and posted on the wall.
Holborn said her mother had an excellent memory and this was brought to life when she began singing songs and recalling dates of special moments in her life, including when she was married in October 1937.
Fernandez was one of the first residents to have a tuck shop in the block of flats on Garupa Crescent.
Holborn said that although some of the children who bought many delicacies are now grown up, they still visited her. Fernandez said she can still shake her hips to Vul’ indlela by Brenda Fassie.
“I thank God for allowing me to see the light of each day. I am happy that I still have my wits and that I am not senile.”
Her granddaughter, Melanie Fernandez, said her grandmother declined to visit the doctor or even accept a visit from the doctor for a check-up.
“She has partial hearing loss but aside from that she is in good health. We are grateful to be in her company. She frequented the local church but because of Covid-19 restrictions she opted to pray at home.”
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