A former athletic champion who won medals for Bermuda and has lived here for 31 years -- since she was one -- could be thrown off the Island.

Somerset woman, Wanda Henry and her three children -- all born to a Bermudian father -- have been "living on the edge of a knife'' for months now waiting to find out whether she would be deported, she said yesterday.

"It tears me apart when they cry and ask me how long I've got left.'' She said all her maternal relatives were Bermudian -- including her mother -- and besides the first months of her life she had never lived anywhere else.

And the Immigration Department yesterday confessed it had bungled over how long it had taken to process her case -- but said she could still be deported if her latest application to reside and work here was now refused.

Chief Immigration Officer Martin Brewer said The Royal Gazette's inquiries had exposed the "procedural hiccup'' which also affected other cases.

"Certainly we should have moved on this case by now. Thanks to your phone call we have identified and solved that problem...'' The case could now be processed within a "week or so''.

Ms. Henry said she completed all of her schooling here, married a Bermudian man in 1990 and had three children with him -- although they divorced in 1994.

It was when the 32-year-old computer technician landed in court over a dispute with her ex-husband's credit card that she learnt she was living here "illegally''.

Because of that discovery she was forced to quit her job in October last year and has had no income since except child maintenance from her husband. She applied for Bermudian status but was horrified to learn it was refused because of the credit card conviction -- her first and only legal trouble. In August this year she completed a new application to simply work and reside here without "status'' and was told it would take only a couple of weeks to process.

Since then "thirty or forty'' telephone calls to the Department had been ignored -- not a single message was ever returned, she said. "My family is being ripped apart.'' She said at one point the Immigration Department even issued a notice telling her she had to be out of Bermuda for good by December 19, 1997. "But this is the only home I have. I haven't been able to pay rent since May this year.

It's just lucky my landlord is a decent man and hasn't thrown me or my children out yet.'' She said her three children were living with her although her husband officially had custody and it would "kill'' her to leave them behind. The case had drawn out for so long that she was "almost resigned'' to moving to America where her father was born.

"I just want someone at the Immigration Office to put me and my children out of our misery and say I can stay or not.'' While he could not comment on a specific case, Dr. Brewer said the law was complex but he denied so many phone-calls would have gone unanswered.