A lifelong lover of Bermuda and regular visitor with hopes of settling on the island is being mourned by friends after her son was charged with her murder.

For Christine Busi-DeGiacomo, from Hudson, New Hampshire, Bermuda was “honestly her home”, according to Lindsay Simmons, a government senator and longtime friend of the victim.

The 57-year-old flew the Bermuda flag at her home and keenly supported Somerset for Cup Match.

“She wished she could be Bermudian,” Ms Simmons said. “She just asked me three weeks ago when she was here if she could figure out how to stay with a Permanent Resident’s Certificate.

She was an “honorary” resident, the senator said, adding: “Bermuda was her heart. She was a beautiful person.”

Ms Simmons, a director of operations at Rosa’s Cantina, recalled how Ms Busi-DeGiacomo threw her support behind a 2016 fundraiser for the island’s foster children at the Hamilton restaurant, where she regularly dined.

“She saw our angel trees and asked what it was,” Ms Simmons said of the restaurant’s Christmas Tree for the Bermuda Foster Parents Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bermuda.

“She said, ‘Gosh, I always wanted to be a foster parent. If there’s any way I could help, let me know’.”

Contributions to the cause followed regularly. Ms Simmons said that her friend would also bring gifts in her luggage for the island’s foster children.

“She only had one flaw. She was a huge Somerset fan.

“Honestly, she is one of the kindest people I have known. I just can’t believe she is gone, and how. She did not deserve this.”

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported on Thursday that Grant DeGiacomo, Ms Busi-DeGiacomo’s 26-year-old son, had been arrested on Wednesday night for causing her death by what the Attorney-General’s office described as repeated blows to the head.

The daily reported that she was found seriously injured at her home and pronounced dead at the hospital.

Her son, who had a suspended jail sentence for a charge of reckless conduct with a deadly weapon at the home in January 2020, was to be arraigned today — the day of his mother’s autopsy.

Hudson, a town of about 25,000, sits on New Hampshire’s southern border with Massachusetts.

Ms Busi-DeGiacomo told The Royal Gazette in 2016 that she had been visiting the island since the age of 5.

“My parents taught me a love for Bermuda and her people, and it’s grown over the years,” she added.

“I come from a very humble background, but every year we went to Bermuda, and that gift of Bermuda has lasted a lifetime.”

Ms Simmons said that her friend, with whom she spoke regularly when she was in the United States, came more than once a year and decorated her New Hampshire home with cherished Bermudian items.

Rosa’s was a favourite eatery, and she said that her friend had asked for a replacement Rosa’s mug during her last visit.

Ms Simmons said: “She loved Bermuda and liked to get around Bermudians, and she had a whole host of friends.

“She told me she was my daughter Laundyn’s unofficial godmother.”

Because of Ms Busi-DeGiacomo’s love for the upcoming Cup Match holiday, Rosa’s plans to create a drink in her memory.

“She was always giving back to Bermuda,” Ms Simmons said. “We can do this and donate the money to a charity.”

Shari-Lynn Pringle, another close friend, visited Ms Busi-DeGiacomo three times in New Hampshire — including surprising her on her birthday.

“She was ordering a drink and thought I was a waitress,” she said. “That’s one of my funniest memories.”

Ms Pringle said she struggled to come to grips with the circumstances of her friend’s death in the same house she had stayed in.

“Her children were her life. That’s what is so hard about this — trying to reconcile the pain she would have gone through, losing her life at the hands of her son.”

Ms Busi-DeGiacomo was said to have a daughter who did not live at the house.

“A beautiful home, a beautiful neighbourhood,” said Ms Pringle, who enjoyed “driving up to her house and seeing the Bermuda flag”.

She added: “I was certain this year I would convert her to St George’s, even though she had bought Somerset chairs for her deck and had Somerset all through her house.”

She said that Ms Busi-DeGiacomo, a single mother whose former husband was deceased, had sold software during her career.

According to social media, Ms Busi-DeGiacomo was a 1988 graduate of Emmanuel College, Boston, and worked as a director of career development for the New Horizons Computer Learning Centre.

Ms Pringle said she had recently made career changes that she hoped would not limit visits to the place she called “my island home”.

“She was especially happy connecting with waiters who served her mom and dad back when they stayed every year at the Southampton Princess, when Frankie Avalon was the guest star. They remembered her.”

Ms Pringle added: “She was just a bundle of fun, a genuine person who loved people and meeting new people.”