A grandmother in a hut in rural South Africa and a granny in a house in a US suburb may have more in common than just their ages. Increasing numbers of grandparents are parenting again. This is because their own children have passed away. AIDS has been a top killer in Africa. In the West, ...
My New Old Self decided to find out what it’s like to get old in the countryside. I visited the bucolic Ofafa Valley in South Africa’s province of KwaZulu Natal, described by author Alan Paton in his famous novel. “There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, ...
See Granny Run. That’s my first response to sports competitions for seniors. Because there’s always a super-sporty over-achieving grandmother. The South African version of elder-sport is the Golden Games and a southern African granny is a gogo. So 81-year-old Katie Barendse was dubbed the Golden Games Gogo. I am in awe of the Golden Games ...
