It is easy to comprehend why Mrs. Gertrude Caines is the jewel of her family and a wide circle of friends.

They treasure her. And it is not just because she has reached the ripe old age of 98 with all of her faculties intact, but rather, among other things, it's her bright and cheerful disposition. And also, it's her most engaging wit and sense of humour we learn from others that she has always disported through out her long life; and her remarkably clear memory of events and people through the century or more.

We called on Mrs.Caines a week ago at the Sylvia Richardson Rest Home in St. George's. She was still radiating from the party accorded her on her birthday on March 2. She was also hosting her granddaughter Debra Tucker, a Hamilton insurance company executive, and her cousin, Edward Gibbons Welch, of Smith's Parish (pictured).

Gertrude was a member of what has become known as the Gibbons Rainbow Clan (I'll explain about that further) was born at Duck's Puddle in Bailey's Bay and raised in the Old Town of St. George's. She attended school there, married James Arnold Caines and became the mother of 13 children, seven of whom survive. They are Olga Howes, Margaret Simons, Virginia Caines, Tony Caines, James Arleed, Granville Caines and leading entertainer and nightclub dancer Bishop Caines, who left the island many years ago for New York, where he still lives.

Gertrude was the only daughter of Grace Geraldine Gibbons, who married Joseph Thomas Virgin.

That marriage collapsed when Grace Geraldine left her young Gertrude and three brothers to be raised by their father. She went to England as the wife of an English soldier who had been stationed in St. George's, and never returned to Bermuda.

Gertrude and her cousin Edward Gibbons Welch are very knowledgeable about their heritage, and the interracial marriages that produced what Edward calls the Rainbow Clan.

The clan expanded when white Bermudian Robert Gibbons, whose forebears migrated to Bermuda from Ireland, married on August 8, 1843 a beautiful Cherokee Native American Indian, who had found her way to Bermuda.

The couple had four sons and four daughters. All of the daughters, according to Edward Welch, married Outerbridges, some black, others white from Bailey's Bay.

Father Robert passed away at age 46, leaving his sons 25 acres of property stretching from Coney Island to Harrington Sound.

One of those sons was Alester Gibbons, Edward's grandfather, whose wife raised 12 children, one of whom was Carl Gibbons, the discoverer of the Crystal Caves.

Notably, the black Gibbonses became prominent in the AME Church, and distinguished themselves in the crafts and arts. Their white cousins made their marks in the highest levels of Government and commerce.

In any case, the Gibbonses for the most part all hang from that Irish migrant, while others additionally have Native North American blood coursing through their veins.