Birthday wishes for “Toekie”

Toekie Engelke

Astria Kline, West Virginia, America

From the bottom of our hearts, mom, happy birthday on your 80th birthday today Thursday February 13.

You don’t look close to 80! Although her youthful appearance makes it hard to believe, Johanna Magdalena “Toekie” Engelke is celebrating her 80th birthday.

Perhaps we can attribute her beauty to her heart of gold. Truly she is as beautiful on the outside as she is in. The proud owner of an adorable little car which she still drives to this day, this industrious little lady still runs errands regularly, not just for herself but for other members of the retirement home, Plumrus.

For her four loving children, Toekie is the model parent, always supporting them with lots of love and prayers. The kind of mom who will be there, no matter how old you are, for you to go to whenever trouble stirs in your life.

This mamma bear always fights fiercely for her children, and I pity the fool who would even think to do them harm. A mother of the purest sweet warm-hearted nature, is not someone to cross. She would do anything for her kids. And she has done so, several times over, in her efforts to raise her family, and one need only look to her family, now adult members of society, to see the fruits of her labour. Loved by her children and her children’s children and even her children’s children’s children…Toekie takes the (birthday) cake when it comes to motherhood.

You may have seen this lovely woman, bustling along in the street, a little ray of purple light and lavender-scented warmth.

With a wardrobe none can match, Toekie displays her creativity and love for the colour purple wonderfully with an array of charming outfits, her unmistakable cheer and the sparkle in her eye – reserved for seeing all the beauty in the world – lights up the lives of all she comes in contact with, whether that be her best friend she chatted to for hours or simply the librarian she talked to for a few minutes before becoming engrossed in one of her favourite books.

Toekie’s love for reading being the only thing to match her passion for life, she’d happily stick her nose in a book, magazine or even a newspaper for a couple of hours in between making everyone’s lives better.

An inspiration to us all in the art of “doing”, Toekie could make a best-selling self-help writer seem like a hopeless procrastinator.

Her optimistic busy nature always leads her to make things better for everyone. It’s no wonder her birthday is so widely and passionately celebrated.

So let us all wish a very happy birthday to the hard-working, kind-hearted and inspirational Toekie Engelke, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother and a lavender-scented saint.

With boundless love and appreciation: Astria, Constance, Piet, Magda, Tom, Arthur, Cindy and Gerhardus; the grandchildren, Carl en Karen, Dominique, Andrew and Sinjin; and the great grandchildren Liam, Luca and Morgan