Centenary hat-trick amid tragedy at Jaffa

Tragedy marred the first-ever hat-trick of centenarians at Jaffa, the Pretoria Jewish home for the aged, when Willie Pokroy joined Ockey Salmenson and Zelda Wolfe in that elite group last weekend. Pokroy’s son, Darryl (67), visiting from Belgium for the occasion, passed away suddenly three days before Pokroy’s birthday.

Pokroy had said earlier that he was grateful to be able to celebrate this birthday. Four years ago, when he turned 96, his planned third Barmitzvah at Pretoria shul was sabotaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and he and his family and friends from all over the world missed out. This time, he was looking forward to sharing his celebration with his family.

He’s the “baby” among the three centenarians – Salmenson turned 101 in June, and Wolfe reached three figures earlier this year. All of them are independent and mobile – Salmenson and Wolfe use walkers to get around, while Pokroy relies on his trusty walking stick.

Born in Claremont, Cape Town, he came to Johannesburg at the age of two, later attending Doornfontein Primary School and Athlone Boys’ High School.

He married Rhona in 1950, and they settled in Pretoria, where he had been in the South Africa Air Force during World War II. Rhona passed away nine years ago, not long after she had been attacked in their home.

Recalling his wartime service, Pokroy said, “I couldn’t fly as I had an impediment – a birthmark in the pupil of my eye – and one needed 20/20 vision to be a pilot. I landed up being an instructor.”

He has lived in Pretoria since 1946, where he started a branch of L Feldman Tobacconists.

“In my  time, I was a heavy smoker until a four-way bypass and then an aorta bypass put paid to that.” Now he walks regularly to keep going. He’s spritely enough to push a much younger wheelchair-bound resident into the dining room almost every day.

He was also a musician, playing the trumpet in several popular dance bands. He still attends get-togethers for retired musicians in Johannesburg.

Upright, dapper, and well-groomed, Pokroy has been at Jaffa for ten-and-a-half years, participating in many activities, including a klaberjass school.

He says he met “special friend” Sonia Gordon, who had also lost her spouse, at a New Year’s Eve party after moving into Jaffa.

He has three other children, two still living in Pretoria, and the other in Dubai, with seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Salmenson, known as “Ockey” although her real name is Rachel, has lived in Pretoria her entire life, going to the Hamilton School and Pretoria Girls’ High School.

Her first job after school was at the Union Buildings, which that time housed the department of home affairs as well as the prime minister’s office. In that pre-computer age, when a legible handwriting was a great recommendation, she completed birth, marriage, and death certificates by hand at home affairs.

She then worked for a period as a receptionist at ABC Coal. At that time, she met her future husband, Joe, at a dance. He was from Piet Retief, but first came to Pretoria as a boarder at Pretoria Boys’ High School.

After their marriage, Joe started Penpoint Stationers in the Pretoria central business district and Ockey went to work there.

They had three children, two sons and a daughter, all now living in Atlanta in the United States, and Ockey has four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her sister, June Berson, has done even better than Ockey’s clan, she says, with five generations alive at one stage.

Ockey was active in the Jewish community, particularly in the Union of Jewish Women and Bikkur Cholim (visiting the sick), as well as being a keen bowls player at Wingate Park and “a good bridge player”. She was also an avid reader until her eyesight declined.

Ockey moved into Jaffa about 15 years ago.

Pokroy and Ockey met in 1946, shortly after he arrived in Pretoria when she was working at the Union Buildings. He said she was the first Jewish girl he met in Pretoria.

“She wouldn’t go out with me,” he said. “She didn’t want to know my troubles, because she was a year older than me.”

Wolfe was born in Johannesburg, but grew up in Balfour in Mpumalanga. She finished school at Johannesburg Technical College.

She’s a slip of a woman – quiet, reserved, greatly loved at Jaffa, not the kind of person usually associated with a military career. Nonetheless she began her army service in 1941, spending the remaining years of World War II in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Services, popularly known as the ‘Wozzies’, ending up with the rank of sergeant. Moving to Pretoria, Wolfe worked in the army paymaster’s corps, handling the soldiers’ pay and writing letters to the families of those killed in action in North Africa where the South African forces were deployed.

“It was a big job,” she said. The prime minister, General Jan Smuts, recognised the significant contribution of the ‘Wozzies’ to the war effort when he visited the Pretoria branch when Zelda was there. In 1947, Princess Elizabeth also paid special tribute to them during the royal visit to South Africa.

“I was there for the whole four years,” she said. “That’s where I met my husband, Jock Wolfe. He had been up north, but came back on leave in 1943. We were married in the old shul in 1945.”

They had four children, two girls and two boys, with two still living in South Africa, one in Sweden and one in Israel. She now has nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, two of whom are married and living in Israel.

Wolfe did voluntary work for the Pretoria Chevrah Kadisha and Bikkur Cholim, and played bowls at Wingate.

She moved to Jaffa 18 years ago after Jock suffered a stroke. He passed away three years later.

She’s completely independent, taking part in Jaffa activities and keeping herself busy with reading and crocheting. She’s also adept at using her smartphone to keep in touch with her family all over the world via video calls.

A  week ago, it might have been appropriate to mark this winning trifecta by echoing the words of the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris: “To 120 plus VAT”. But instead of celebrating, Pokroy is receiving condolences.