Mrs Beatrice McGrath is a 97-year-old woman. She is a mother to 13 children and to many more grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mrs McGrath loves to cook and her favourite past-time is baking bread. She keeps her mind stimulated by reading the newspaper and watching the news on television. She loves having her family all together and cooking for them. Mrs McGrath was born in Cape Town and remembers every street name on which she lived. During her years, she cared for her children without any assistance and also for her friend’s child who lived with intellectual challenges.
Mrs McGrath had experienced rheumatic fever at the age of 13, tuberculosis in her 20s and survived COVID-19 with pneumonia in both her lungs. She then began to experience hearing loss in 2022. Mrs McGrath attended the hearing screening day where her hearing loss was confirmed. With the assistance of the Spirit Foundation, she was able to undergo comprehensive diagnostic hearing evaluation and will be fitted with a hearing aid in April.