Janette (Higgie) Zuill lived through two world wars, has been a fashion model, written books, met the queen and at the age of 96, still plays a mean game of Bridge.

Mrs. Zuill, who celebrated her birthday this week, provides a fine example of how to live a full life. She was born on November 21, 1909 the middle child in a family of five. She was dubbed ?Higgie? in her school days, because her maiden name was Higgins.

?I grew up in Flemington, New Jersey at the time of the Bruno Hauptmann trial,? said Mrs. Zuill. ?The trial happened in the court house in Flemington.?

In 1932 Hauptmann was found guilty of kidnapping Charles Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh who lived in Hopewell, New Jersey.

The trial, which involved ransom notes, and a German-born defendant who fought against the Americans in the First World War ? was one of the most famous of the 20th Century. Hopewell was only about ten miles from Flemington, and Mrs. Zuill?s mother actually played a very minor role in the case.

?My mother?s name was Bertha Higgins,? she said. ?She had a little cigarette case which she lost, or was stolen. It had her initials, BH on it.

?Someone found the cigarette case and turned it in because they thought the BH stood for ?Bruno Hauptmann?. When it was presented to the court, the judge said ?that?s ridiculous, that belongs to Bertha Higgins?. The judge lived right across the street from us, and he knew that she had lost it.?

In those days, Mrs. Zuill was friends with a girl whose father ran a department store in New York.

?I use to model for them,? she said. ?I modelled negligees and tea gowns. What would happen was, these men would bring their girlfriends to see the things you could buy. Then they would wait down at the employees entrance to the store to see whether or not they could have date with me!?

While attending St. Margaret?s in Waterbury, Connecticut Mrs. Zuill became friends with a Bermudian girl at the school. ?I was the class of 1928,? she said. ?I came to Bermuda to stay with my friend. In those days we came by ship. I stayed with my friend?s family. My friend asked me ?what do you think of the Bermuda men we have??, and I said, ?they are all so short!?.?

But Mrs. Zuill must have seen something she liked in Bermudian men because she met Cummings Vail Zuill on the trip. Mrs. Zuill eventually moved to Bermuda, and the couple was married in June 1934.

?There was a lady in Bermuda called Miss Elisabeth Hill,? said Mrs. Zuill. ?She was active in local charities. I told her it was sad that there weren?t many things for young married couples to do, so she said ?why don?t you start an organisation??.?

Mrs. Zuill took Miss Hill?s advice and formed a charitable organisation for women under the age of 40 patterned after a similar organisation in the United States. This year, the organisation, the Bermuda Junior Service League, celebrated its 70th anniversary.

?The Junior Service League use to take the trolley around the hospital with magazines and so forth,? she said. ?We did a lot of volunteer work. It is really wonderful the way the organisation is still going strong. They have done a great deal over the years.?

The Bermuda Junior Service League now offers a scholarship in Mrs. Zuill?s name for undergraduate and postgraduate education. One of the prerequisites is involvement in the community.

In March 1990, Mrs. Zuill went with her family to Buckingham Palace in London, England to be made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen for her work with the Bermuda Junior Service League.

?It was wonderful to meet the queen,? she said. ?There is a great deal of etiquette to follow. For example, you can never turn your back on the queen and they take away your handbag.

?They call you when it is your turn to meet her. When they called my name I walked down the corridor and this woman was lying on the floor. She had fainted because she was so scared. She was alright but she had to leave. I think she was just carried out.?

Mrs. Zuill said people meeting the queen are allowed to take two guests with them to Buckingham Palace, and from where the guests sit, they actually see more of the action than the person receiving a medal.

?You must curtsey when you meet her,? she said. ?I remember practising that.?

Mrs. Zuill has now retired from community service, but rather than staying at home and resting (which would be perfectly acceptable for a nonagenarian) she still loves a hand of Bridge.

In fact, it was her friends at the Bridge Club who asked the to interview Mrs. Zuill. Their request beat out a similar one from the Junior Service League by a few days.

?I like to play Bridge at the Bridge Club and play duplicate,? said Mrs. Zuill.

Duplicate bridge is so-called because the same bridge hand is played multiple times, using boards to keep and pass each player?s hand intact. The final score is calculated by comparing others who played the same hand.

?I didn?t play duplicate for a long time, but I am learning,? Mrs. Zuill said. ?I have a friend who takes memory pills, she says ?if you can remember to take them?.

?The Bridge Club is very popular. They play transfers and all kinds of conventions, but I don?t. I keep it as simple as possible.?

When Mrs. Zuill isn?t playing Bridge, she likes to write. She has written several children?s books including a Bermuda alphabet book, and most recently, ?Horny the Cow Fish?.

The story was originally written for her children in the 1940s, but because she could not find a publisher, she put it away.

Then her children, Cummings Zuill Jr. and Elizabeth Cart encouraged her to pull it out again. It is now widely available in Bermuda and can be found at the Aquarium in the gift shop.

Her real passion, however, is poetry, and she has put together several chapbooks.

?I am a poet as I am so inspired,? she said. ?I write poetry if I see something beautiful, or if I can?t go to sleep. I think it just depends on how I am inspired and where I am inspired.

?I still write poems although I don?t think I will publish again. I write by hand. I know nothing about computers. I was originally inspired by the poem ?Patterns? by Amy Lowell. I very often go through the poems in my mind to see what I can remember. I use to give recitals.?

Her oratory talent was first noticed by a teacher when she was a young girl in New Jersey after she played the Pied Piper in a school play. The teacher arranged for her to give recitals.

?The first one I ever gave was at the Waldorf Astoria hotel,? said Mrs. Zuill. ?I also performed at women?s clubs. I got paid for it, which was nice.?

She said she doesn?t read as much as she would like, but she loves to watch quiz television shows, such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

?I am also very keen on the local paper,? Mrs. Zuill said. ?I read that, especially Letters to the Editor. I like to read other peoples? views and so on.?

Mrs. Zuill said her own philosophy about life is to try not to criticise other people.

?I think it is very important not to criticise,? she said. ?I think sometimes you find that the people you are criticising are a lot worse off than you are.?

She said when she goes to bed at night, she says her prayers, but at the age of 96 doesn?t look too far into the future.

?I know that I have to leave this earth sometime,? she said. ?I am not looking forward to it, but I hope that I can do it with grace.?

Mrs. Zuill has four grandchildren, and has also been a founding member of the Hospitals Auxiliary of Bermuda and is a former Garden Club president.