What would make someone holiday in the same place, 36 times?

Leonora Sheehy got hooked on Bermuda in 1963.

Fifty-two years later, it’s still her favourite place to vacation.

“What keeps bringing me back is that Bermuda is close, safe and not tropical,” the Danvers, Massachusetts resident said.

“My husband and I never liked it very hot. He was Irish and had to find shade if the sun was really blazing. Granted, Bermuda is not as safe as it was once, but you can still walk down Front Street and not have to worry.”

It’s one of many things that have changed since her first visit.

Mrs Sheehy paid $35 a night for her room at the Hamilton Princess. The rate included breakfast, afternoon tea and a full dinner.

“Everything was so beautiful and the people so friendly,” said the 71-year-old, whose e-mail username is ‘Bermudalvr’.

“I came with three girls I worked with. It was a few months after the grand opening of the new wing at the hotel.

“At the time I was just out of high school and working for United Shoe, a factory in Beverley, Massachusetts. Someone said, ‘Why don’t we go to New Hampshire?’ Someone else said, ‘But you have to make your own sun’.”

A great time was had by all. The island became Mrs Sheehy’s go-to place for celebrations. She’d sometimes visit three times in a year.

Rosedon, Rosemont, Ariel Sands and Fordham Hall are among the hotels she’s stayed with the late Hazel Lowe’s guesthouse in Paget is her favourite to date.

“On December 8, 1987, the Flatley Company in Boston was offering a one-day shopping spree on the island for $149,” she said. “It was on a chartered flight. I asked anyone with a pulse to come with me. Finally, I found a friend to come with me.

“The Bermudiana gave us a big room to put our luggage in, and off we went to shop in Hamilton. We came very early in the morning and left after dinner. We rented mopeds and I took my friend to St George’s.

“Our best times have been spent at Salt Kettle House. We loved it there because everyone sat down to meals at a communal table. There was a real family atmosphere. We were thrilled when we first found the place in 1988.”

To her dismay, a planned trip to the island in October 2001 had to be cancelled.

“That was after 9-11 happened,” she said. “My daughter-in-law said she wouldn’t get on a plane, so we cancelled. It took me all year to pay that one off.”

She visited last October, a year after her husband, Thomas, died.

“It was hard going back without him,” she said. “We were married for 46 years. He worked for GE in computers. We have two grown children and six grandchildren. Now I travel by myself because you can’t rely on other people. They either end up with health issues or have other problems.”

She returned with her granddaughters to celebrate a milestone last week.

“The first time Hannah came was at 18 months and she came again when she was a little older,” she said. “Now she is 17 and is about to go to college. She kept saying she would love to go back, so I said, ‘If you want to go we will go’. I asked if she wanted to invite her younger sister, Katherine, who is 15.

“Hannah said yes. They are getting along better now than they did when they were younger, and it has been a good shared experience for them. They saw Bermuda with new eyes as they were very little when they were here last.”

She said the girls run track at school and enjoyed running along Horseshoe Bay in the early morning.

“It was fun being here with them,” Mrs Sheehy said. “They didn’t want to leave on Saturday.

“They are already planning to come back for Katherine’s high-school graduation in two years.”

One of the highlights was a visit to Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Arts.

“It is wonderful there,” she said. “On the previous trip I went there and there was no one at the front desk. I walked into the exhibition hall and two people were there getting ready for the next exhibition.

“I asked if I should leave, and they said, ‘No, no’. So I walked around and had the place to myself.”

She’s so taken with the island she couldn’t single out any one place as her favourite.

“Anywhere near the aqua is good,” she laughed.

She said she was sorry to see Johnny Barnes had retired from his position at the Crow Lane roundabout.

“He is a sweet, sweet man,” she said.

She already has plans to return to Bermuda in October to celebrate her 72nd birthday.