For years as they looked over Happy Valley, Vance and Darlene Hollis noticed children having to skirt traffic along the precarious turn below their house.

“It became pretty scary,” Mr Hollis recalled.

“Around 4pm the schoolchildren, children as young as 6, would walk around while cars were trying to beat the traffic out of town. The road gets narrow once cars are parked along my side. It became very serious to me and my wife, and rather than see an accident outside our house, we thought this was best.”

The Hollises have donated a roughly 5ft strip of their property at the corner of Happy Valley Roads and Hillsdale Avenue, where construction is now under way for a sidewalk.

The deal took time: when the family first approached Works and Engineering with the idea back in 2008, “we had money in the country”, Mr Hollis said.

“We agreed to do it and then the finances dried up. It’s taken up to now to get something happening.”

Rolfe Commissiong, the area MP, praised the family’s gift to their neighbourhood.

“They’ve been trying for a long time,” he said. “To paraphrase the American comedian Henny Youngman, who used to say ‘take my wife ... please’, Vance was saying ‘take my land, please’. But finally they got the bureaucrats mobilised, and hopefully it will be finished soon.

“It was never about the family wanting a pat on the back,” Mr Commissiong added.

“They’re trying to make life easier for children and seniors who walk this area, where the road is a bottleneck.

“What they’ve demonstrated here is civic responsibility and community spirit — virtues that used to be very common in Bermuda. It’s nice to know there are still some people left who adhere to them. They are leading from the front by their example, and I hope that it becomes contagious.”

Mr Hollis gave special thanks to two Public Works staff who helped to bring the proposal to a reality: Allanette Hayward and Tina Searl.

“They helped push this, and they have our thanks and gratitude,” Mr Hollis said.