A Cape Town granny is still going strong after celebrating her 102nd birthday on Sunday.
Mina September, from Bellville, was born on a farm in 1920 and says her secret to life is a passage from the Bible: “Honour your father and your mother so you may have a long life.”
Aunty Mina is still outspoken and as fit as a fiddle, and her family describes her health as being in “tip-top shape”.
She has survived two pandemics – the Spanish Flu and Covid-19.
Last year, she contracted the virus after five people in the household tested positive.
According to her family, she has not had any health issues or been reinfected with the virus.
Aunty Mina shared her knowledge about the impact of the Spanish Flu that devastated the world from February 1918 to April 1920.
It infected an estimated 500 million people – about a third of the world’s population – in three successive waves.
Variants of the 1918 H1N1 virus make up the flu viruses we’re fighting today.
Aunty Mina told IOL: “I also had the Spanish Flu during that time. I overcame it, and I had Covid-19 and overcame it,”
On Sunday, family and friends gathered to celebrate their matriarch with a lunch.
“I have nine children, seven boys and two girls, from which I have 27 grandchildren, 49 great-grandchildren and 24 great-great-grandchildren,” the grand old lady said previously.
However, another great-great grandchild has since been added with another on the way.
In 1955, Mina married the love of her life, Esau September, and they were together until his death in 1996.
Aunty Mina describes herself as an exemplary person and always treats people with kindness.
While she may not know much about technology, she has urged the youth to remain obedient to their parents or guardians and to remain in church, as that is how she was reared
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