Lula Mae Pellerin remembers the day her son was born as clearly as if it were yesterday. She was pregnant for the first time, far from her home and family in North Carolina and with a due date some way off.

But Tracy Housel had other ideas, and decided to arrive prematurely.The then-Mrs. Housel and her husband Bill lived in a small apartment in Hamilton Parish owned, she says, by a Dr. Clark. When she brought the baby home from hospital her landlord took one look at his blonde hair and exclaimed: "Ah-ha, he's an onionhead all right."

"The name stuck and I called him `Onionhead' throughout his childhood," Mrs. Pellerin says. "In fact, my other children asked me, `Mommy, why do you call Tracy `Onionhead?' so I had to tell them the story. Dr. Clark said all blonde-headed babies were called `onionheads'."

Although she has never returned, Mrs. Pellerin cherishes fond memories of the years she and her family spent in Bermuda - a destination she knew nothing about before her husband, a civilian worker at the US base, was posted here. The couple had married when she was 14 and he was 43.

"I had never left North Carolina or flown before.

"At first I was so homesick that I told my husband I was going home to North Carolina, but he said, `Honey, when you've been here a month you won't want to go home', and he was right.

"Lord that seafood was good," Mrs. Pellerin remembers. "We'd roll it in batter and have ourselves a li'l ole fishfry. Bermudians cooked their fish so many different ways it was unbelievable. Sometimes I also went to the Princess Hotel especially to eat the seafood because it was so beautiful."

Later, neighbours would teach her how to cook codfish and lobster, and to this day she has kept a book of Bermuda recipes.

Her first real taste of legendary Bermudian friendliness came when she finally brought her baby home from the hospital.

"People just came in by the dozen - neighbours and all, to see me and welcome Tracy," she says. Today she still marvels at the friendliness of the Bermuda people. Everyone would speak to us. I have never seen such friendly people. It was something truly wonderful. It was like home to me," she says.

Mrs. Pellerin particularly remembers the friendship of Belle Aubrey, who also lived in Hamilton Parish, and whom she estimates to have been around 50 at the time. "She loved Tracy to bits," the former resident recalls. "She would say, `There's nothing sweeter than this little boy'."

The couple had a car and a motorbike, and Mrs. Pellerin mostly rode the bike. She particularly enjoyed riding in to Hamilton, where she would buy her groceries and visit the shops.

Although she cannot now remember the name or location, Mrs. Pellerin recalls one shop which was run by "a Hindu lady" which sold "a lot of silver stuff" and from which she bought a silver spoon that she still has.

In fact, when it was finally time for the family to leave in 1958, the former North Carolina devotee cried and begged her husband to stay, but he explained to her that he had no choice. Their three years in Bermda was up and they they had to go.

Back in the United States, the family grew to include three more sons. Recalling his childhood, Mrs. Pellerin says Tracy was "a fun child".

Today, the mother of four faces very difficult times. She is crippled by arthritis and lives alone on social security. Her oldest son sits on death row in a Georgia prison facing execution by lethal injection on March 12, and another took his life in prison last year. Of her two other sons, one is in California, while the other lives about 200 miles from her home.

This weekend Mrs. Pellerin was being reunited with Tracy for the first time in many years, although the two have kept in touch by telephone. She knew that visiting him on death row would be a bittersweet mixture of love and overwhelming sadness. What would she say? How would they both react?

"I've just got to be extra strong," she resolves. "Every mother has to do that at one time or another."

She expected they would reminisce about his birthplace, and said she might even call him `Onionhead' one more time.

Asked to describe her son, she says, "He's a handsome guy. Always was. And he's as sweet as he can be."

If that seems an odd description, given the nature of his crimes, his mother makes no apologies.

"Even with the situation he is in, I am still proud of Tracy," she says firmly. "I would walk to the ends of the earth for him if I could. There is no love like a mother's love."

"Beth Wells, Robert McGlasson, Gary Proctor and all - these people have been absolutely fantastic. ."

Recently, Mrs. Pellerin flew with Mr. McGlasson to London to meet personally with Labour MP Vera Baird, QC, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who are also involved in the clemency bid."I am praying to God that things will change," she says tearfully. "Even if they keep him in prison for the rest of his life at least he will be alive. I have already lost one son."