For years, it was Lawrence and Karen Dill’s dream to travel to Tuscany but they never made the trip.

After losing her husband in 2013, Mrs Dill went alone.

It was with that same adventurous spirit that she agreed to direct Dale Butler’s new musical, Pickles and Spiced Ham: Bermudian Women in Song. The show takes place Saturday, at St Paul AME Church.

“When Dale said, ‘I want you to be the director,’ I thought, this is just something else new, because my life today is not reflective of what it was prior to 2011,” Mrs Dill said. “Maybe it’s the schoolteacher in him. If he sees something that’s worth developing, he goes hard after it. I am touched that he saw that in me.”

She and her husband had been married for more than 30 years when he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in October 2011. That same week, the HR executive was made redundant.

“Had it not been for that journey I probably would not be as willing as I am now to totally embrace the unknown,” she said. “My life in the past three years has certainly prepared me. I was his primary caregiver until his passing. That solidified in me unmovable faith that, even in the face of the unknown, all is well.”

The decision to take on the role of first-time director was one she never would have made in her former life. A blossoming interest in politics led her to strike up a friendship with Mr Butler after meeting the former MP through a mutual friend last year.

“I very cautiously said, OK, but the truth is I’m having a blast,” Mrs Dill said.

“I have a new friend that I think will be a friend for life. He and his wife are phenomenal people and I love how he does everything he can to honour those that have gone before us.”

Pickles and Ham began as a celebration of women in song but grew into what Mrs Dill describes as a “mystery-comedy-musical show”.

The plot follows the cast as they try to save a concert hall from closure, each auditioning for a show that will act as a “last-ditch effort” to save the facility.

A red carpet event held at Cafe Lido last month paid tribute to the people who inspired the production: Miriam Bassett Trott, King Trott, Ranham Burch, David Burch, John Burch, Stan Seymour, Eddie Ming, Jimmy O’Connor, Keith Caisey, Sandy Butterfield, Rudolph Benjamin, Mildred Iris, June Caisey, Stan Gilbert and Charles “Jiggs” Douglas.

“It was fun to see our musical heroes be honoured that way,” Mrs Dill said.

The cast is made up of “ten talented women — top stars in their own right”, three men and a live band.

Rehearsals began in February with a few setbacks. One of the primary actors, Glen Iris, passed away suddenly at the beginning of March, while another cast member ended up in hospital.

Said Mrs Dill of those challenges: “Whenever I’d get involved in different things, like more challenging professional roles, my late husband would always look me straight in the face and tell me, ‘You can do this with your eyes closed. What’s your hesitation?’

“Now, I don’t have him, but I can imagine him saying that. He believed in me without a doubt.”

The couple believed in family. They had three daughters and one granddaughter, who will be three this summer. “We did everything together,” Mrs Dill said. “When you lose that sense of stability it causes you to stop and truly take stock of what’s holding you, because if that’s not secure then your world can become chaotic. But it didn’t. I’m coming through and so are our girls.

“We’ve done tremendously well despite the change that was thrust upon us. I could have allowed it to destroy me or I could allow it to remake me. I am who I am today because of that journey — totally open to whatever challenge comes.”

•Tickets are $20 for the 2.30pm show and $25 for the 7.30pm show. You can buy tickets at the church or at Music Box on Reid Street. Part of the proceeds will go to the Mirrors programme and the church.