WATCH | Fish Hoek gran celebrates 96th birthday while social distancing
A Fish Hoek woman's family were not on the fence on how to celebrate her 96th birthday, instead they were behind it.
Betty Tilling's grandchildren and great-grandchildren celebrated her birthday “from afar” while practising social distancing on Sunday.
Tilling sat in the yard with her daughter, Cathy Dippnall, and her son-in-law Kelvin, while granddaughter Heather Mitchell and her husband Alan, and two sons, Ethan and Connor, celebrated on the driveway.
Tilling's sons, who live overseas, wished her via Skype and WhatsApp videocalling.
“My daughter works at a retirement home nearby and had heard how children hugging and kissing grandparents passed on the disease to them. So it is important to us to take social distancing and lockdown seriously. Celebrating mom's birthday was important to me as she and her generation are built of sterner stuff, she takes half a blood pressure tablet and hates other meds.
“Kelvin, mom and I live together, so social distancing between us isn't necessary, but is as important for us too,” Dippnall said.