Some people might see writing their own obituary as morbid but not Linda DeSilva. The 90-year-old has one ready to go, when the time comes.

“Writing it wasn’t a sad task,” she said. “I know that I am going to die one day. And when I do, I will be reunited with my husband and the Lord.”

Friends at the Evangelical Church of Bermuda in Paget asked her to write it a few years ago.

She has been a member of the church for 63 years.

“They knew about my life in the church, but not much about my early life,” said Mrs DeSilva. “I was happy to do it.”

In the three-page document she revealed that she was brought up in Bournemouth, England.

Her father Clement James was a general contractor and her mother, Clara, was a stay-at-home mother.

War broke out when she was 12, and her father went to work in munitions, and her mother with the railways.

“At the time, the railways were transporting troops backwards and forwards.”

Bournemouth received a bit of bombing due to the nearby city of Southampton.

“It was less than other places,” she said. “But sometimes we could see Southampton on fire in the distance.

“I can remember going to school and seeing the hotel next to the school completely flattened by bombing.

“The Germans had found out that servicemen used the hotel when they were on leave.”

Towards the end of the war her father had an accident and could not work, so she had to leave school at 16 to help her family.

She did a two-year full-time commericial course at Bournemouth Municpal College in England, which included shorthand and typing.

“I was brought up in a Christian home,” she said. “My mother was a committed Christian. After my sister and I were grown she used to speak quite a lot at women’s meetings. It was a natural thing to be really interested in the Lord’s work.”

So when her secretarial courses were over she went to a bible college in Glasgow, Scotland.

“Part of our training was to work in the slums and lodging houses,” she said.

But when she finished the two-year course, she was considered too young for mission work. Someone suggested she train as a teacher in the meantime.

“I took a course at the Worcester College of Education,” she said. “Then I taught in England for a while. Then I got itchy feet.”

When she saw an advertisement for a teaching post in Bermuda, she felt the Lord was showing her the way.

She arrived in Bermuda to teach at Port Royal Primary in Southampton in September 1952.

“When I first came I thought of Bermuda as being very grey,” she said. “It was the time of the cedar blight and all the cedar trees were dead.

“There were lots of them in front of the school. But people were very friendly and welcoming.”

After a few months a friend introduced her to a young man called Frank DeSilva. She met him again when she joined the Evangelical Church a few months after coming to Bermuda.

“But it didn’t stick,” she said.

Then one day she was biking through Hamilton when she noticed Mr DeSilva struggling to get a bag of groceries in his car.

“I rode past him, but I thought if I was a man, I’d stop and help. Why shouldn’t I do that as a woman?”

So she turned around and went to his assistance.

“After we got the groceries in the car, he asked if was going to a party being held by our friend,” she said. “He wanted to take me, but I said, no, but he could bring me home afterward.”

The couple married a few months later. Mr DeSilva managed the laundry at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, and then later worked in hotel and restaurant sales.

“We never had any children,” said Mrs DeSilva. “That was disappointing, but it was in the Lord’s hands.”

When Mr DeSilva died in 2014, they had been married 60 years.

She retired from teaching in 1987 after 35 years at Port Royal. Her last ten years were spent working as the school’s deputy principal.

“I still see my students on the street,” she said. “They come up and give me a hug. Sometimes they recognise me before I recognise them, because they’ve grown up.”

After retirement she privately taught music for several years. Music is one of her passions.

“I took piano lessons as a child,” said Mrs DeSilva. “I taught music at Port Royal and I was also choir director at my church for many years.”

But a heart attack and a stroke have played havoc on her fingers.

“Now I just play simple things at home,” she said. “I also play for the Ladies’ Aid Society at church.”

She enjoys writing and in 1990 published The Evangelical Church of Bermuda — The First Century 1890 to 1990, in honour of her church’s centennial.

She has also been writing weekly spiritual meditations for The Royal Gazette’s religion section for the past 32 years.

In 2016, she released a collection of these, for her church’s 125th anniversary.

“The one I wrote just before the General Election was a prayer for Bermuda,” she said. “It was not partisan at all. It was a prayer for Bermuda to make wise decisions, and for God’s direction.”

When she is not writing or playing the piano she loves tending to her roses.

“They are drying up now because of the heat,” she said.

She celebrated her birthday on June 26.

“I didn’t do anything to celebrate on the day,” she said. “I was in England with my younger sister.”

Unfortunately, her sister was not very well, so they stayed in.

“But last Sunday, my two friends got together and had a 90th birthday party for me,” she said. “ It was late, but it was very enjoyable.”

In her life she is grateful for what the Lord has done for her.

“I am grateful to have been brought up in a Christian home,” she said. “I am thankful for the Church and the many kind friends I have here.”

She felt privileged to have contributed something to the Lord’s work.

“I am also thankful I have been able to contribute to the lives of many boys and girls in Bermuda,” she said.

She received the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour for her work in education in 1992.

• Lifestyle profiles senior citizens in the community every Tuesday. To suggest an outstanding senior contact Jessie Moniz Hardy: 278-0150 or jmhardy@royalgazette.com. Have on hand the senior’s full name, contact details and the reason you are suggesting them