For years, Lynnette Davis was known as “the fluoride lady”.

Back in the 1970s she had helped the health department launch a dental programme for children.

She drove around the island in a van, dispensing fluoride tablets to students.

“The children didn’t like them,” Ms Davis said. “But then we got some that were different colours and the children would eat them because they thought they were candy. They would come up to me and say, ‘Can I have a purple one today?’

“I loved working with children. I always wanted to take care of people.”

She was the eldest of seven children born to Olga Barstowe.

“When I was 2, my uncle, Ross Manders, asked if I could go and live with him and his wife,” Ms Davis said. “They didn’t have any children.”

The carpenter treated her like a princess.

“He was very kind,” the 80-year-old said. “He let me do anything I wanted. His wife did not approve of that, but she went along with the show.”

A highlight of living there was the stable of horses her uncle kept.

“When I was little, because I was always so small, I would walk right underneath them and they wouldn’t bother me,” said Ms Davis, who at her tallest only reached 4ft 11in.

“They knew me. But when my cousins came around, the horses would kick out at them.”

She was one of the first students to attend Francis Patton Primary School. A special ceremony led by Sir Alexander Hood, the Governor, celebrated its opening in November 1950.

The school principal, Kenneth E. Robinson, chose Ms Davis to present flowers to the Governor’s wife, Lady Evelyn Hood. Then 7, she mistook her for the Queen of England.

“She was very friendly,” said Ms Davis, who still has a copy of the photograph of herself and Lady Hood. “She said, ‘Hello, little girl.’ And I said, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’”

When it came time for her to hand over the bouquet, she was so mesmerised that she forgot to present the flowers. She had to be prompted to finally give up the arrangement.

Two years later she won a scholarship to attend the Berkeley Institute.

Her family was thrilled but she did not appreciate how lucky she was. Only two or three scholarships were awarded to attend what was then a fee-based school.

Ms Davis left after “a couple of years” and at 16, had a daughter, Janel Allen.

Years later she married an American serviceman and moved with him to Wichita, Kansas in 1962.

They spent five years there, before moving on to military bases in Guam, Japan, New Hampshire and Michigan.

“It was wonderful to travel like that,” she said, “but Bermuda was always my favourite place.”

She took correspondence courses in secretarial work and dentistry to occupy her time.

In 1976 she divorced and moved back to Bermuda where her daughter enrolled in Roger B. Chaffee High School on the Kindley Air Force Base.

Ms Davis worked for a few years as a waitress before the course she took to become a dental assistant landed her a job at the health department’s dental clinic.

It was her job to educate patients on oral hygiene. She also sometimes helped the dentist with clients in the chair.

“I would help them rinse their mouth out, and that sort of thing,” she said. “I was so little that they had to give me a stool to sit on so I could see the patient.”

She took early retirement in the late 1990s, but remained active, helping out with after-school programmes at West Pembroke Primary, Francis Patton Primary and St George’s Preparatory School.

Ms Davis also led reading programmes and summer camps. She then became a messenger for dentist Ronda James and a volunteer driver with Meals on Wheels.

“That was fun,” Ms Davis said. “I would go in, pick up the meals and the list, and then I would be gone.”

Her own health challenges caused her to become one of the charity’s clients a few years ago although she has since moved into the Lorraine Rest Home in Warwick.

“They spoil me here,” she said. “I get everything I need.”

At her 80th birthday on September 21, her daughter and granddaughter, Danielle Allen, surprised her with a birthday cake and a party.

“I couldn’t make another one better,” Ms Davis said of her daughter. “She is very good to me. And when she comes to visit, I am very happy to see her.”

Ms Allen said her mother has always been loving and caring.

“She always taught me to appreciate others,” she said.

• Lifestyle profiles the island’s senior citizens each week. Contact Jessie Moniz Hardy on 278-0150 or jmhardy@royalgazette.com with the full name and contact details and the reason you are suggesting them