Bermuda is not quite the same now that Berta Mae, the morning anchor woman at VSB AM Radio slipped into retirement. Friday last was her final day on the job she has spotlighted for the past 20 years.

I admit to being one of those fans engrossed by her inimitable way of getting her listeners off on a good foot each work day with her refreshing mix of music, her friendly, mature banter interspersed with the station's news and information and her own corny jokes.

Daily Berta Mae was as cool with her mix of country and western music, Bermuda music and a bit of reggae, as she was with soul, country pop and country rock. She always came across as being cheerful, personable, soothing; some one with an out of the ordinary personality. She was there in all winds and weathers, rain blow or shine.

Others undoubtedly knew, but I had no idea of what Berta Mae looked like, or what her real name was, where she hailed from and what made her tick.

On the other hand I seemed to maintain good rapport with many of her colleagues like Carol Marshall, her bubbly early morning counterpart on the Defontes VSB FM Station; Dennis Mitchell the evening drive-home jock, super saleslady Lillian Robinson, all of whom were birthed in broadcasting more than a quarter century ago when I was station manager and news Director of the original Monty Sheppard ZFB AM & FM and TV Stations.

Berta Mae was new and elusive, even though she reached out so effectively over two decades. The music she was playing on her last but one day, and then the next, convinced me that she was going for real and my chances of ever meeting here were fading.

I was aware that some of her dedicated listeners had been freely gifting her with flowers, fruit, candy and other farewell tokens which she had been dutifully acknowledging throughout the week.

It was such sentimental selections as "One Moment in Time:, "Don't Shed a Tear", and this is "Our Last Song Together" along with Abba's "Time to Move On" were part of the nostalgia that built up an irresistible urge to check her out on her last day, at least to get a photograph of her in action.

Berta just happened to be outside her booth when I arrived, receiving delivery of a bottle of wine from one insistent fan, and from another a huge bouquet of carnations.

For the next hour I enjoyed sitting in her booth observing her deal on and off air with one telephone call after another.

Just before introducing her good-bye record, station manager Mike Bishop entered, took over the microphone and thanked Berta Mae on air for her loyalty and dedication, and he wished her well. She was then invited outside where colleagues watched as company owner Kenny DeFontes, presented her with a cheque and had more kind words to say.

It was after those formalities that I got to know Berta's real name is Alberta Soares, originally from Spanish Point and now a resident of Southampton West. Her two children, Charlotte DeCouto and Dr. J.J Soares, a Hamilton city medical practitioner, have made her a grandmother of three. Having fulfilled her childhood "dreamy dream" of being a broadcaster, she is now free to indulge more fully another passion.

She is a self-taught and highly creative sculptor, having worked with clay since she was aged five making dolls out of pop bottles.

As a young girl while visiting her grandmother who lived at Court and Angle Streets, she became fascinated by Gombey dancers, and followed them around.

She now makes the most beautiful clay Gombeys, some as tall at two feet, complete with authentic costumes.

Berta said she was honoured when the Premier, Dr.Ewart Brown purchased one of her creations for his home in Devonshire, which is named "Gombey House"', and also when the Bermuda Regiment went to Scotland to perform in the Edinburgh Tattoo three years ago, Government ordered a number of her Gombeys for the Regiment to present as Bermuda gifts to Scottish officials.