On a spring morning, Emily Christian sits in the Gordon’s Bay home she has lived in for more than three decades, a word search or reading book never far from reach.

She is, by her own admission, spoilt. Breakfast arrives in bed. If she feels like getting up, she does. If she does not, she stays put and relishes another quiet day at her own pace – because at nearly 100, every day is a gift she does not take for granted.

“When I wake up, I give thanks because I’m here another day and He’s letting me stay in good health,” she says.

Her son Robert, who moved in with his wife Patricia to care for her, chuckles beside her. He calls her the heart of the family; the one who holds the threads together with a smile she never lets slip, even on the hard days.

Emily’s fondest memories begin with a train ride that changed everything. Barely a month into high school, her mother decided she needed to go to work. So the young woman who had never been away from home for more than a school day caught a train to Cape Town and walked to a bioscope – one of the old cinemas that once dotted the city – where she landed her first job.

Her manager kept a watchful eye on her. She settled in, and life began to open up.

Around age 19, Emily met the man who would become her husband. He lived on the other side of Bellville, and courting was not simple – many a time he missed the last train and had to sleep at a station. They married in 1946. “I thought I was old already,” she jokes.

The marriage bridged two worlds: he was very English, she was very Afrikaans, though her English mother had raised her with enough of the language to hold her own. They built a life from a single flat in Gardens in Cape Town.

Years of battling

Emily’s husband spent about 35 years working for the post office, and the family moved where his work took them – from Cape Town to Goodwood, and eventually to the Helderberg in the 1990s. She worked as a saleswoman at a furniture shop in Woodstock until age 65. Those were years of battling – no fancy frills, no easy transport. But they built themselves up, and they managed.

Emily has no shortage of stories from a century of living. She belonged to an elderly group that met weekly and went on outings.

One memorable trip took her to Mozambique; another to Victoria Falls, where, to her family’s astonishment, she climbed into a helicopter and flew over the falls.

That trip came with its own adventure: their British Airways flight was delayed, costing them a day. Emily wrote a letter to the airline and received a free return ticket to anywhere in South Africa. The following year, she and her sister flew to Durban.

These are the moments Emily treasures – not grand achievements, but the simple joy of being with people she loves in beautiful places.

These days, Emily keeps her mind sharp with books and puzzles. “I have to keep my brain going,” she says.

She also treasures her garden – succulents that were there when the family moved in and vegetables she has tended herself.

On Tuesdays, she gathers with her rosary group at church to pray. It is a rhythm of faith, family and quiet purpose that has sustained her through the loss of her husband in 2001 and the passing of years that might have worn down a lesser spirit.

Emily has two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her only child Robert and daughter in law Patricia have been her caregivers for six years.

Carries on

He sees up close what the rest of the family has long known. “She always sees the positive side to every situation,” Robert says.

He describes a woman who never speaks of pain, who will put on a smile even when something is wrong – so much so that he has learned to read it in her eyes. She does not like being fussed over. She simply carries on.

Robert says she is a mother figure to her own family and many beyond it. “She exudes love,” he says, adding the little ones have never seen her without a smile.

There is a story Robert tells that captures his mother’s character perfectly. Emily only started receiving her state pension at 90 – not because she was ineligible, but because it never occurred to her to claim it, even as her brothers and sisters collected theirs.

It spoke volumes about the kind of person she is: someone who never thought to ask for anything, who was too busy caring for others to notice what was owed to her.

On Tuesday 6 October, about 50 family members and friends will gather to celebrate Emily’s 100th birthday. The party has been a source of gentle amusement for Emily, who says she is a little scared of all the fuss.

For Robert, the wish is simple: “I wish that she enjoys her future life without overthinking. Just to be comfortable and enjoy what’s to come.”

As for Emily’s own recipe for reaching 100, she is characteristically straightforward. Keep busy, keep active, keep your mind active. “The majority of people today talk so much, and there’s very little action.”

It is advice she has lived by for a century – and it has served her well.