All Fredie Blom wants for his 116th birthday on Friday is something he cannot get under lockdown: tobacco to roll his own cigarettes.
A tall man with a smoky-grey beard below his mask, Blom could be the oldest man alive -despite “smoking like a chimney” all his life, according to his wife Janneta.“He is stressed about having no more tobacco. He used to roll his own with newspaper, that was his hobby,” she says. “Nothing can comfort him now.”
No doubt Blom is exceptionally old — his identity document shows that he was born on May 8 1904 — but he does not seem frail.“The wind was so strong that a tree fell down and he was chopping it up. He can spend hours making fires,” Janneta says. Western Cape community development officer Gadija Francis must yell when she repeats my question to him about if he remembers the Spanish Flu.
But Blom has survived more than a century, including the brutal apartheid era, and he is still standing.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Police pounce as toddler runs on beach - family arrested and chargedA Cape Town man and his family were detained in Muizenberg on Monday for “taking a walk” on the beachfront.
Read more »
Police pounce as toddler runs on beach - family arrested and chargedA Cape Town man and his family were detained in Muizenberg on Monday for “taking a walk” on the beachfront.
Read more »
Police pounce as toddler runs on beach - family arrested and chargedBulgen said the health and safety standards at the police station were appalling and many of the police officers were not wearing masks. Covid19SA
Read more »
Cops release photos of men who allegedly tried to kill top Cape Town lawyerPolice have released images of the two men who allegedly tried to murder leading Cape Town criminal attorney William Booth a month ago
Read more »
Cops release photos of men who allegedly tried to kill top Cape Town lawyerPolice have released images of the two men who allegedly tried to murder leading Cape Town criminal attorney William Booth a month ago
Read more »
Robbers hit Khayelitsha animal clinic, holding up staff at gunpoint'This has resulted in even more emotional and financial stress, over and above their lockdown difficulties,' said fundraising and communications manager Marcelle du Plessis.
Read more »