Patricia Riding was once a regular on the Bermuda stage; she wasn’t good at auditions but would take any part offered. The Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society dubbed her “Pickled Onions”, after one amusing role. But a broken ankle ended it all.

“I was going on a Christmas cruise and had left a sweater on the line,” said Mrs Riding who turns 91 tomorrow. “I don’t know when it was, but it was a while ago.

“My husband, Frank, was in the shed near by. I thought, ‘Should I call him or should I make a dash for it?’ I made the wrong decision. I slipped and my ankle was broken in two places.”

She was about 70 at the time and had broken the other ankle some years earlier. When the more recent breaks healed, she was a lot less mobile and could no longer handle being on stage.

Luckily, another door opened for Mrs Riding. A friend got her hooked on bridge.

“It was probably about 20 years ago that I started playing,” she said. “It is something that gets hold of you once you start. When you start playing you have to get better.”

Today, she loves the game so much, she named her home Bridge House.

“I used to play with a company of professional bridge players led by Geoffrey Jade Barrett,” she said. “I met him when he came to Bermuda to play. He took a shine to me, and I went with his company playing in tournaments all over the United States.”

In bridge you accumulate points with each game won and the points lead to various levels of mastership. Through her travels with Mr Barrett she was able to accumulate more than 2,000 points.

She earned her life mastership in 2003, and her silver two years later.

“The lady who gave me my life mastership said I had earned enough points for two life masterships,” she said. “Unfortunately, being almost 91 I’ll probably never get to the next level.

“Even if I was playing regularly in Bermuda now, you can only pick up a few points here and there for games.”

She was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, not far from Sheffield.

Her father, Charles Gould, repaired bus engines and her mother, Eleanor, was a homemaker caring for Mrs Riding and her six siblings.

“I would read a book a day,” Mrs Riding said. “I had to pass a library on my way to school and I would take out a book every day. I was always furious on Tuesdays because the library was closed.”

At 8, she was pegged as bright and moved forward two grades. Unfortunately, the move did not do much for her handwriting.

“I never had a chance to learn cursive,” she said. “I asked the teacher if I could just write in print, and he said no I could write in cursive like the other students. So all I did was put little loops joining the letters together. My handwriting is still terrible today.”

She was 14 when the Second World War broke out. At 18 she qualified as a teacher and worked in a day nursery for the children of female war workers.

“The matron was a little bit of a body, but oh my goodness did she chase our tails around,” Mrs Riding said. “We worked from 7am to 7pm. The children were collected at 5pm, but if there was any work not finished by 7pm we all had to stay and help until it was finished.

“That meant we had to go home in the dark in blackout conditions. There were no lights on in the street.”

As part of her training she had to learn to put a gas mask on a small child.

“Luckily my town was never bombed,” she said. “But we did have air raids where we had to take to the shelters.”

She met her future husband, Frank Riding, at a dance.

“I loved dancing,” she said. “I was always out.”

They married on August 2, 1947, and were together for 54 years before Mr Riding’s death.

Although Mrs Riding adored children, she struggled for ten years to have her own.

“They said I had an infantile womb and couldn’t hold a baby,” she said.

Finally, after fertility treatment, her son Christopher was born in 1957. It was another ten years before she was able to have a second child, Felicity.

“By that time I was 42,” she said. “Everyone thought Felicity was a mistake. I had a good laugh with some of the other mothers in the hospital because I’d actually taught some of them when they were little.

“But it didn’t seem to hurt Felicity any. She didn’t miss out on anything. A Gypsy once came to my door and predicted I would have two children.

“I don’t normally believe in Gypsy tellings, but it came true, and I am so very pleased.”

In 1970, looking for a change, the Ridings answered a job advertisement for Bermuda. Mr Riding was a special needs teacher and the Bermuda Education Department needed someone to set up a programme for children with physical and mental challenges.

“At the time many people in Bermuda with children with disabilities kept them at home,” Mrs Riding said. “The parents were very pleased when Frank set up a programme for them. He would take the children all over the island to find a job for them to do. Some of them had challenges but were very capable.”

Mrs Riding taught first at Lyceum nursery school in Hamilton Parish and then at Central School.

“There was a baby boom at that time,” she said. “The school was very full. I had 30 five-year-olds. It was hard teaching that many small children, but I loved it. In fact, I miss the little ones even now.”

In 1979, the boom ended and there was less demand for teachers.

Her contract ended but she became a substitute.

“Then I was just as busy as ever,” she said. “There was always a need. I told the schools that if they called before 10am I would go anywhere to work.”

She retired in 2001.

“I enjoyed my teaching time,” she said. “And I still miss the children.”

Today, Mrs Riding loves to read and plays bridge when she can find a partner. She also loves playing bridge on her iPad.

“It keeps my brain active,” she said.

She has one grandson, Campbell Keating, who lives in Scotland with his mother, Felicity.

Mrs Riding expected to spend her birthday quietly.

• Lifestyle profiles a senior citizen in the community every Tuesday. If you know of an outstanding senior citizen we should feature, let Jessie Moniz Hardy know: jmhardy@royalgazette.com or 278-0150. Please include their full name, contact details and the reason you are suggesting them in your message