105 and alive! Gardening ouma still Fluks

A Heideveld ouma, who turned 105, is certainly living up to her name and keeps fit by gardening every day.

Wilhelmina Fluks celebrated another milestone birthday on Saturday and says she never thought she’d even reach 100.

Her surname Fluks is Afrikaans for diligent and industrious.

The ouma tells the Daily Voice the reason for her longevity is because she honoured her parents and God.

“I am very happy to have reached 105. I didn’t think I would ever get to be here in my life. I thought I would have been dead by now,” the granny says.

“The secret to get to this age is I honoured my mother and father day and night.”

She says she also never drank dop or smoked cigarettes: “I have stayed away from all those things and that is one of the reasons I lasted this long.”

Her high blood pressure doesn’t keep her down and independent Wilhemina refuses help from anyone.

Her daughter Roseline Hendricks, 61, says they are all amazed by her mom’s energy: “No one gives her a bath, she does that by herself, she doesn’t use kimbies, if she needs to go to the bathroom, she goes by herself.

“Every day she is by her garden, which she loves. She waters her plants daily.

“That is how she keeps fit, she likes to keep busy, it is only when she is tired that she goes and rests.”

Wilhelmina had a birthday bash on Saturday, which made her poegaai.

“We invited the church people and my mother was dancing a lot and I guess her legs were tired,” says Roseline.

“She is a healthy woman who locks up everything in the house.

“If we need to get out of the house, we have to ask her first, she is really old school.”

Wilhelmina was born on 15 May 1916 in Montagu, close to Worcester.

She has five children, 29 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and over five great-great-grandchildren at last count.

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