Bernice “Bunny” Kirsch’s family really wanted to do something special for her 100th birthday. When they asked the Massachusetts-resident, what she wanted, the answer came back certain: another trip to Bermuda. She has been here at least five times since the Seventies.

She arrived in Dockyard, on the Norwegian Jewel on Sunday with 20 of her closest friends and family. Twenty-two more people came by air.

Family and friends held a birthday bash yesterday at Solaris, at the Reefs Resort & Club in Southampton, attended by former St George town crier E. Michael Jones.

The birthday girl, known to all as “Bunny”, grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.

“When I was in high school we were staying in a two-family home,” Bunny explained. “There was another Bernice there, and we would get calls, and have to try to figure out which Bernice they wanted.”

As a joke, her two older brothers decided she would be called “Bunny” to distinguish her from the other Bernice, and the nickname stuck.

When she had grandchildren, she did not want to be called Granny. Instead, she suggested “Mrs Bunny”.

“Now everyone calls me that,” she said. “I even get mail addressed to Mrs Bunny.”

She and her husband, Bob, raised five daughters: Janet Kirsch, Ellen Rao, Paula Collins, Nancy Kirsch and Julie Mueller.

For a long time, she was a stay-at-home mother, while Bob worked as a salesman in the meat packing industry in Massachusetts. Then Bob fell and permanently damaged his hand and arm to the point where he was unable to work. To feed their children, and pay the mortgage, Bunny went out to work.

“My youngest daughter was 4 when I went to work for a Sears distribution centre,” she said. “My mother-in-law, Ida Kirsch, helped me take care of the children. She was wonderful.”

Bunny worked for Sears for 22 years before retiring in her sixties.

In her spare time she loved to garden, and had a large vegetable patch outside of her house, which she kept going for many years.

Her husband would often give her cow manure for Christmas, which she loved because it was great for her garden.

The Kirschs first came to Bermuda on a cruise, to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary in 1976.

“We picked Bermuda because we did not have to fly, and Bermuda was close by,” Bunny said. “Everybody we knew said go to Bermuda and you will love it. It is a beautiful area.”

Bermuda did not disappoint the couple.

“The beaches were beautiful,” Bunny said. “You could get anywhere on the bus. The shopping was good, although we couldn’t do much of that in the beginning, because we were raising five children. We did take home souvenirs for the girls.”

They fell in love with the island, coming back at least five times for the sunshine and relaxation.

Bunny said, ultimately, it was the friendliness of the people that brought them back, again and again.

“When school got out we would be travelling on the bus with students,” she said. “They would always give up their seat to an elderly person. It was very sweet.”

Although they could not afford to stay there in the beginning, they loved the Elbow Beach Hotel. Bob died back in the Nineties.

Bunny was last here in 2013 on another cruise. This time around, she is looking forward to exploring Hamilton again.

“I want to see how much the city has changed since I was last here,” she said.

She drove a car up until she was 91, and now lives in an assisted-living facility near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

“For my age, I am in good health,” she said. “I am very able to take care of my own needs.”

Longevity does not necessarily run in her family. Her parents and grandparents mostly lived into their seventies and early eighties.

Bunny thinks it is the love of her family that has kept her going for so long.

“I have a big family, and we are all very close,” she said.

Her 100th birthday is actually in September, but the family decided to take a celebratory cruise this month so that several of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, could attend while school is out.

Some of her children have also become regular visitors to Bermuda.

“I first visited the lovely island when I was about 17, for a week,” her daughter, Nancy Kirsch, said. “I ended up getting a broken left foot, in a moped crash with another inexperienced visitor.”

Nancy did not see much of the island on her first trip here, but promised herself she would come back.

“Many years later, and much to my surprise, I found myself working on cruise ships sailing out of New York on Home Lines ships,” Nancy said. “We sailed from New York to Bermuda every single week from May until September. I did that for three years in a row and totally fell in love with the island and the people and the culture.”