Helle Patterson spent her childhood outrunning the horrors of wartime Europe.

The semi-retired Bermuda teacher was born in Rakvere, Estonia in 1938, the younger daughter of Karl and Meeta Nurk. The Russians invaded when she was 19 months old.

“Then we were occupied by the Germans,” said the 77-year-old. “Then in 1944, the Russians were coming back. We were terrified, because they had committed such atrocities and had deported so many people to Siberian slave camps. We fled to Poland a week after my sixth birthday.”

The family was helped by the fleeing German army, who took refugees in whatever space was available on their warships.

“In exchange, the refugees had to work with the army and guard forests and things like that against the Russians,” Mrs Patterson said. “Who the baddies were and who the goodies were was a matter of perspective.”

She awoke to the sound of artillery fire in January of 1945.

“We’d heard it before but now it was thunderous,” she said. “The Russians were coming again.”

The Nurk women escaped to Germany, while Mr Nurk stay behind to help the Germans hold Poland. “After a few days though, the men were told to flee as well,” Mrs Patterson said. “My father found us in Germany.”

Her mother had a pre-war postcard from a friend in Flensberg, near the German-Danish border. They made their way there, hoping she could help them.

“The war was coming to an end and Germany was in chaos at the time,” she said. “There were refugees everywhere. Along the way we met some people who said they knew a place that could help us. We gratefully took their advice, but when the gates clanged shut behind us we knew it was a trap.”

The Nurks found themselves in what they believe was a labour camp.

“I wish I knew the name of the place today,” she said. “There was an Estonian woman in the camp who assisted the commandant and helped other Estonians.”

The woman showed the commandant Mrs Nurk’s postcard written in Estonian.

“He could not read Estonian,” said Mrs Patterson. “The woman told him we had a job and a home waiting for us on the German-Danish border. Of course, it said nothing of the kind, but it had her address.”

The Nurks were released, and continued their journey towards northern Germany.

“There were very few trains running,” said Mrs Patterson. “We had to trade whatever we had for food. At one point, we traded our suitcases and carried our clothes in bundles wrapped in dog leashes. Then the dog leashes were stolen.”

They eventually reached Flensburg, and were hidden in an abandoned yacht club for the few remaining months of the war.

After the war, the Nurks spent four years in a refugee camp in Germany, before finding work in England.

Mrs Patterson’s parents took menial jobs in a series of boarding schools and manor homes including Great Rollright Manor in Oxfordshire owned by the Heywood-Lonsdale family. Mrs Patterson was a playmate to Amanda Heywood-Lonsdale, now the Duchess of Devonshire.

“She was six years younger than me,” said Mrs Patterson. “She only wanted me to dress her and bath her, not her nanny. I have a photo of me sewing clothes for her dolls. Of course, we never kept in touch.”

Mrs Patterson came to Bermuda at 26 to teach French at Whitney Institute. She met her future husband, Bob Patterson, during a rehearsal for a Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society play, not long after arriving.

“He came into the play at the very end,” she said. “He was the hero of the piece. I was helping out with costumes. The leading lady was out sick and I was asked to stand in for her.”

They were engaged after just a week and married after five weeks.

“Bob was married before and was engaged for five years and that didn’t work,” she said. “So he said, ‘Let’s try it this way’. My mother called my older sister and asked if I was pregnant. My sister said, ‘I don’t think she’s known him enough to know’.”

In December, the Pattersons will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

“However, we took five years off for bad behaviour,” she said. “We divorced and then remarried in 1979. Marriage is never easy. We needed time apart to move forward and grow.”

She’s taught at a number of schools around the Island including Northlands Primary for 21 years, the Bermuda High School for Girls and Teen Services. She is still a regular substitute teacher at Saltus Grammar School.

One of her life’s passions has been supporting the Bermuda Civic Ballet.

“We were there for their first production in 1972, Devil in the Village, at the old Rosebank Theatre in Hamilton,” she said. “I became involved when our niece, Coral Waddell, started dancing as a child.”

For years, Mrs Patterson helped with publicity or stitching costumes whenever needed although she gave it up for a short while when the demands of teaching became too great.

Ms Waddell, who is now director of the Bermuda Civic Ballet, asked her to join the board in 2004.

“People involved with the arts tend to panic a lot,” she said. “I try to calm things down and look at what is possible.

“I do this because I love to see young people having opportunities that I didn’t have as a child.

“I always wanted to take ballet lessons when I was little, but obviously I couldn’t.”

In her spare time, she loves taking online courses with futurelearn.com, and has studied everything from archaeology and marine biology to mind reading.

“I’ll never take another course with ‘mind’ in the title,” she said with a rueful laugh.

“That one was the only real dud. I just love to learn about the world.”

She and her husband have one daughter, Maia McGuire and a grandson, Patrick.

• The Royal Gazette is highlighting Bermuda’s outstanding senior citizens, every Tuesday in Lifestyles. To suggest an outstanding senior citizen e-mail jmhardy@royalgazette.com or telephone 278-0150.