To watch Kay Thompson at work is to be a witness to a virtuoso performer at the top of her craft.

On this day, the diminutive 86-year-old mother of three and grandmother of six can be found doing what she does best at the Belmont Hotel concierge desk.

A visitor makes an inquiry about Devonshire Bay, but Mrs. Thompson, on hearing their, wishes steers them toward Horseshoe Bay.

"You can rent a chair, buy a cool drink and even get a sandwich if you are hungry,'' she advises. "That may be closer to what you want to do.'' Satisfied, the visitor smiles, bids Mrs. Thompson adieu and goes on her merry way.

Mrs. Thompson does this seven days a week every week and to watch her ply her wares -- an engaging smile, soft eyes and a healthy dose of charm -- one is bound to conclude that she is happy at her job.

No surprise then that The Hospitality Professionals Association selected her for the Hospitality Person of the Year award.

A distinction of which she was unaware until she received a call from The Royal Gazette .

"I couldn't believe it I thought they were talking about someone else,'' she recalled of a conversation she had with Suzanne Decouto, president of the HPA a few days ago.

"I just figured that she wanted me to pass on the message to someone else. I had no idea that someone was me.'' With that recollection, Mrs. Thompson shrugs her shoulders, throws up her hands and settles into the interview.

But it's too soon. Her expertise is needed again. A female visitor wants to arrange a taxi tour.

Mrs. Thompson excuses herself and explains the price system for a three hour $90 taxi tour for the group of four.

She then calls the driver who agrees to pick the visitors up at 2.50 p.m. and the guest departs.

And without any apparent shifting of gears, Mrs. Thompson turns and resumes the interview right where she left off.

"When I lived in Paris, a concierge was one of those guys who called a cab for a guest,'' she explained. "But at the Belmont I am responsible for arranging a guest's amusement.

"I organise their time on the Island to see that they get the most out of it.

In many ways it takes someone who is not born here to do this work. Local people do not experience the island like a guest would.'' And Mrs. Thompson knows of what she speaks. The well-travelled grandma was born in London and worked in Paris as an 18-year-old, and later in Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany.

In Germany, she worked with Jewish children, teaching English, French and Italian.

Not long after she followed her late husband, Bermudian Teddy Thompson, to Montreal where he attended officer training and joined the air force.

Eight months pregnant with their first child in the 1940s, Mrs. Thompson had to fly back to Bermuda in a Royal Air Force bomber because her husband wanted his son born in Bermuda.

"So I boarded a RAF bomber and they flew me down with a doctor but the poor doctor became ill and so the hammock they had laid out for me to rest in was used for him.

"I spent my time on the flight deck drinking beer with the pilot!'' she chuckles. "That was 54 years ago.'' It's hard to believe just on appearances alone that Mrs. Thompson has lived so varied a life.

And it seems that the ten-foot-square "office,'' on the right hand side of the hotel lobby as you enter is large enough to house her adequately.

However Mrs. Thompson is the paradigm of proficiency. Her desk is orderly.

Each brochure is folded neatly and placed in groups so that a visitor sitting opposite her can read.

Mrs. Thompson goes through her entire repertoire of signature gestures as she talks; the seemingly benign shoulder roll, her habit of resting her head on the back of her hand and the cocked eyebrows as she tries to make sense of a reporter's question.

But what keeps this veteran of more than 25 years in the hospitality industry going seven days a week? "It's good therapy to help the public,'' she said. "I get a lot of pleasure and companionship and I have made a tremendous amount of friends.

"My entire life has been spent with people. I love it. I don't look at it as work. I thoroughly enjoy what I do. I don't know what I would be doing if I wasn't doing this.''