Adults all over Bermuda, including teachers and Dalton E Tucker principal Tajauna Dean, have plenty of reasons to thank Marion Lister.

Nominated along with 33 others to be recognised for her contributions to the community at this year’s senior awards, Mrs Lister initially had mixed feelings.

“After a while, I got into it and accepted it — and it was a good feeling,” the 78-year-old said of the Island’s latest ceremony — the 29th one.

Mrs Lister was a union shop steward in the difficult early years of Bermuda’s hotel industry, and later she organised a Valentine’s Day lunch for up to 150 senior ladies.

However, she is best known for tending to generations of young Bermudians at the West End for more than 30 years after creating the Romper Room Day Care Centre in 1975. Some went on to become lawyers and doctors, but for many the Romper Room was a training ground for teachers.

The legendary comportment of Mrs Lister’s young students belied the nursery’s name: one restaurant initially tried to turn away a luncheon of 14 youngsters, only to be amazed at their quiet behaviour.

“Quality time”, she said, is the secret to cultivating calm in the home: “Not just sitting in front of the TV. Spend time around the dinner table talking.”

Mrs Lister attributes her values to a frugal life growing up on a farm, always with chores and learning the value of time.

“That’s my concern about young couples today — they want to get to the top of the ladder without the climb,” she said. “There are a lot of sacrifices to be made. You must stay focused on your goals.”

Goals included building the family home with her husband Eugene, who passed away seven years ago this week. The couple bore three children: Gina, and MPs Dennis and Terry — the latter now retired. Mrs Lister was a stand-in mother to children from the British and Canadian bases, along with a coterie of local youngsters: the nursery started with five, and grew to about 40.

Dedicated parents teamed up for activities and outings that even included organising a one-day trip to New York courtesy of a Pan Am airlines special deal.

A keen traveller, she even visits old students overseas.

“We had many people — you couldn’t even count them all, and good people,” she said. To many of them she became “Aunt Marion”.

“Now it’s Nana Marion,” Mrs Lister added.

Editorial, page 4