‘I’ve Got the Joy’ is one of Constance “Ma Pinky” Mello’s favourite hymns.

“I’ve got the love of Jesus down in my heart, down in my heart, down in my heart...”

The 88-year-old has been spreading the joy for the past fifty years, ministering door-to-door, in prisons and overseas.

She joined St Luke’s AME in St David’s when she was 12 and since then has held, at one time or another, every office other than pastor.

“The greatest thing I have ever done in my life is accept the Lord as my personal saviour,” she said. “It is the greatest thing anyone can do.”

Her memory is not so good these days but she still goes to St Luke’s regularly and can still say a moving prayer.

She grew up on Great Bay Road in St David’s, then Battery Road, about 100 yards from her current home. She was one of four children born to James and Florence Foggo and is now the only one left. Her father worked for 52 years as a pilot.

“I don’t think I got into a lot of mischief when I was little,” she said. “I was a very quiet child. I was always afraid to do things I knew I shouldn’t do. I lived like that until my teens.

“My parents were very strict. You knew you weren’t supposed to do a certain thing and you didn’t do it. Life was nice and easy.”

She fondly remembers family picnics at Ruth’s Bay or at Clearwater Beach, then known as Annie’s Bay.

“Everyone would join together and take their lunches,” she said.

“Most of the time, you walked to the beach. Then you’d find a spot and let the children go swimming. People loved each other in those days and we all took care of each other’s children. It was really nice living.”

She was 13 when the base lands were established in St David’s. At 16, she would often go dancing at Pepper Hall on Pepper Hall Road, near what is now Clearwater Middle School.

“The St David’s boys would often get into fights with the American GIs,” she said. “They didn’t like the GIs getting too close to their women.”

She married Lionel Mello, a construction worker and taxi driver from Warwick, in March 1947. They were married for 52 years before Mr Mello passed away.

They had seven children: James (deceased), Alan “Joey”, Judy Williams, Joanne Burgess, Juan, Bonnie-Rose Mello, and Kimmie.

Kimmie followed his mother into the evangelist ministry at St Luke’s.

“On friends and family Sundays at the church, she can really fill the place up,” Mr Mello said. “She has 30 grandchildren, 57 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. That’s not including spouses.”

Mr Mello said that when he was a child, his mother would often load him and his siblings into a small boat and row them out to fish at Coco Bay in St David’s.

“We would catch yellow grunts to eat,” he said. “If we caught chubs she’d take them home and salt them to get rid of the coarse taste.”

In later years, many young fishermen would stop by her house to ask her to salt the chubs they had caught.

“She became the grandmother to the neighbourhood,” Mr Mello said.

One of Mrs Mello’s favourite things to cook was shark hash.

When someone caught a shark, she would drain oil from its liver into a pan and add pepper leaves and parsley to the oil until it turned green.

After boiling the shark and wringing it out, the shark would be hashed and then fried in its own oil.

“I love to eat fish,” she said. “We would eat the shark hash with sweet potatoes and pumpkin.”

At certain times of the year, she would also dry out fish eggs (mullets) by placing them in waxed paper and pressing them between two sheets of glass.

After drying, the result was a hard, waxy substance that looked like yellow dish soap.

“You put a piece of that up in your gum and sucked on it all day,” Mr Mello said. “It did have a strong taste.”

Mrs Mello is still an honorary evangelist minister, despite her failing memory.

“She will carry that until God calls her home to glory,” said her son.

• The Royal Gazette highlights outstanding senior citizens in our community every Tuesday. If you know of someone we should highlight, e-mail jmhardy@royalgazette.com or call 278-0150. Please leave the senior’s name, contact details and the reason you are suggesting them