Dorothy Esdaille was widowed at 47.

She had four children to support, a heap of hospital bills, and a mortgage.

All she could do was sit down and pray.

“I asked God to please keep me well so I could pay everything off,” said Mrs Esdaille, who celebrates her 93rd birthday today. “My husband Charles was 48 when he died from heart problems. We had four children and the youngest child was 13. I had a lot of hospital bills to pay off because he’d been in and out of the hospital before his death; we had only just taken out a mortgage to buy a home.”

Her job as a jewellery store clerk didn’t pay a lot of money. Mrs Esdaille decided to supplement her income with baking.

“Before I went to bed I would knead out the dough and put it to rise,” she said. “I would get up at 2am, loaf it, and then make another batch to be loafed when I got up in the morning.”

She was overcome with emotion the day the Cut Road, St George’s home officially became hers.

“When I put that final cheque down at the bank I just let out a ‘Praise Jesus’,” she said. “The bank teller looked at me funny. If only he knew how hard I’d worked to make the final payment. I don’t remember how long it was now, but it was a long time. Today, the thing I am most proud of is that I was able to pay off my home on my own.”

She grew up near Mullet Bay in St George’s. She and her brother Richard were raised by their mother, Eileen Bartram, and grandmother Margaret Bartram.

“My grandmother took care of us because my mother often worked nights in the hotels,” said Mrs Esdaille. “She worked in the Shorehills Hotel where the BIOS station is now in Ferry Reach, and also in the Somers Inn which was on the square in St George’s.

“It was wonderful growing up. My brother and I played jacks, marbles and hide and seek.”

Her favourite times were going fishing with her uncles. She loved watching as the nets were cast.

Today fish is her favourite food: baked, stewed or fried. She’s been known to suck the meat off the heads, she loves fish so much.

“I remember my mother would catch these long black worms to use as bait before we went fishing,” said Mrs Esdaille. “She would dig them up from under the sand.

“She would use a hoe or a spade to get them. They were too quick for me. I could never catch them, but they were good bait for turbots and yellow grunts.”

Mrs Esdaille was a good student at East End Primary but had to leave when she was 11 to help her family.

“There was no money in those days so we had to help out at home,” she said.

“I had to do housework. It wasn’t easy, either.

“We had to wash the clothes by hand. There were no washers or driers, not where I lived. The iron was a self-heater. You had to put coals in it.

“When there wasn’t enough coal we had to go on the hill and chop down the cedars. We also cooked on a coal stove.”

Mrs Esdaille is a lifelong member of the Salvation Army Church in St George’s.

“I was dedicated there,” she said. “I was married there and, God willing, I’ll be buried there.”

For many years she was the Sunday school superintendent.

“In those days we had a lot more Sunday school children,” she said. “Sometimes we had up to 170 children. Most of the other Sunday schools were in the morning and ours was in the afternoon, so we got a lot of children coming to catch the afternoon class.

“Many of them weren’t even in the Salvation Army. It’s different today. Parents let their children do whatever they like and they have other activities on a Sunday.”

She and her husband married in 1940. Mr Esdaille liked to dance; she was reluctant.

“He would take me to dances, but I preferred to read,” she said. “It was a happy marriage and we had four children, Alfred and John, who are now deceased, and Connie [Francis] and Margaret [Cannonier]. My daughters are good to me.”

Until recently she was active in her church’s community care programme and enjoyed visiting the sick and shut-in.

A fall last year stopped her from doing as much as she once did, although she’s a regular at the church’s social programmes and Bible study.

“I would still be doing it if I could,” she said. “I’m not one for sitting around. I like to get out and mingle.”