Daily Times

South African Fredie Blom celebrated his 116th birthday yesterday unfazed by the coronavirus crisis, more than 100 years since the Spanish flu pandemic killed his sister.

“I have lived this long because of God’s grace,” said Blom, possibly one of the oldest men in the world.

Blom has spent most of his life working on farms around Cape Town. He met his 86-year old wife Jeanette at a dance and won her heart over with his jive moves.

The couple have been married for almost fifty years. They moved to the Cape Town suburb of Delft three decades ago.

At his great age, however, he says he won’t let the coronavirus pandemic panic him.

And he did not mince his words about South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, complaining about a nationwide ban on cigarette sales as part of a series of lockdown measures.

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Blom grumbled, adding that cigarettes were his only birthday wish this year.

Blom stopped visiting doctors more than two years ago, claiming he was tired of being pricked and prodded.

“Now he just takes two Disprins a day, but sometimes he steals my pills,” Jeanette said, laughing affectionately at her stubborn husband.

While Blom never had children, he adopted Jeanette’s two from a previous marriage as his own.