All Fredie Blom wanted for his 116th birthday yesterday was something he couldn’t get under lockdown – tobacco to roll his own cigarettes.
According to a report in TimesLive, Blom, of Delft in Cape Town, could be the oldest man alive, despite his ‘smoking like a chimney’ all his life, according to his wife, Janneta (86).
‘He is stressed about having no more tobacco. He used to roll his own with newspaper, that was his hobby,’ she says. ‘Nothing can comfort him now. He likes to be independent and he is getting frustrated.’
According to the report, Blom said his sister died of the Spanish flu pandemic, which claimed an estimated 50 million lives in 1918.
TimesLive said the ‘official’ oldest living man in the world is 112-year-old Bob Weighton from the UK. The Guinness Book of Records was reportedly verifying Blom’s age.