Jessie Berry celebrated her 104th birthday on Friday July 24 at her home in Settlers Park Retirement Village and shared her cake, which she received as a donation from Spar, with the rest of the residents.
Born in Manchester, England, in 1916, Jessie has enjoyed a long life, having been born in the middle of World War 1 and living through the Second World War. She was born just 13 years after the Wright Brothers made their inaugural flight and subsequently witnessed the Apollo moon landing. At the time of her birth women did not even have the right to vote in the UK.
Jessie qualified as a medical doctor at Manchester University and served in India during World War 2 where she met and married her husband Aubrey Berry, a Rhodesian who farmed Friesland cattle and also grew maize and tobacco. After the war, the couple moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where they lived for 36 years before they moved to South Africa in 1981 and lived in For Beaufort.
Aubrey died in 1992 at the age of 80.
Practicing medicine until she was 79 years old, Jessie has lived happily among friends at Settlers Park for the last six years.
She has a son who lives in Cape Town and a daughter who also resides at Settlers Park. She has seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
She and her family would like to say a very big thank you to the owners, management and staff at Rosehill Spar for their generous donation of a wonderful birthday cake and snacks she received.
