The heart and soul of Salt Kettle Guest House in Paget, Hazel Lowe was yesterday celebrated by her daughter as the “most gracious, charming, empathetic, caring and kind person”.

“She had a delicious sense of humour, tremendous strength and all of her guests wanted to adopt her,” Suzie Lowe said of her mother. “She was Salt Kettle House personified.”

Hazel Lowe died at her home on Friday at the age of 86, after suffering from a short illness.

“She was such a charming, wonderful woman,” Ms Lowe said. “She made everyone who crossed her path feel uniquely special. She had such a knack with people. They absolutely adored her.”

Ms Lowe added that her “larger than life, colourful and bright” mother “was deliciously bossy, which people loved”, always telling guests where they should and shouldn’t visit or eat.

Hazel Lowe and her husband, Bobby Lowe, bought Salt Kettle Guest House in 1970 during their lunch hour.

Although Hazel Lowe took a step back from running the business last year, Ms Lowe said that she was always an “intricate part of it”.

She was even awarded Hotelier of the Year in 1999 and the guest house won several other awards over the last 45 years.

“There were times when my parents would take people in and sleep on their boat,” Ms Lowe explained, adding that many of their guests became their extended family.

Hazel Lowe met her Bermudian husband, a Rhodes Scholar, at a ball in Oxford, in the United Kingdom, where she was working as a nurse.

The couple married in 1949 and had four children: Michael and Suzie were born in the UK and John and Jane, who were born in Africa.

Mr Lowe, who had been an administration officer in the Colonial Service, and Ms Lowe moved to Africa soon after their wedding and lived in Nigeria until 1954.

After a four-year stay in Bermuda from 1954 to 1958, they decided to head back to Africa and moved to Malawi, then known as Nyasaland.

They returned to Bermuda in 1966.

Hazel Lowe, who played tennis for many years in Paget, was also an integral member of her church.

“She always attended St Paul’s Church and that was very important to her,” Ms Lowe said, adding that a funeral will be held there on Friday at 10.30am.

And Ms Lowe added that her “deliciously bossy” mother insisted that colours are to be worn. Hazel Lowe also became a member of the Stroke Association after Mr Lowe died from a stroke in 1994 and she was later involved with the Meals on Wheals charity.

“She devoted her life to helping others,” Ms Lowe said. “She was an extraordinary woman.”