Catherine Cox still lives in the house where she was born, on The Glebe Road.

The 88-year-old remembers when the pace of the Pembroke neighbourhood was slower: no cars, no electronics and no shootings.

“We skipped rope when we were children. We played with marbles. I don’t know if children today do those things anymore,” she said.

“We didn’t have all these gadgets in my day; these children have iPods and phones.”

She didn’t hear the shots Julian Washington fired that killed Stefan Burgess and injured Devana Bremer in 2012. The two were at a house party in her neighbourhood at the time.

“It does feel terrible to hear about shootings and other things going on,” she said. “I am very concerned about it. I pray all the time that things will eventually calm down and people will get along with each other.”

The senior citizen is doing her best to help that happen.

She’s volunteered with Meals on Wheels for the past 27 years; eight years ago she began reading to students at the school in her neighbourhood, Victor Scott Primary.

“[The school was] asking for volunteers. I like reading and I like children so I signed up. They are very sweet children. They love it when I come, and they bring me their favourite books to read. I like to sit and talk with them about little things. I do think it makes a difference to them.” She drove her own car around to deliver food to Meals on Wheels clients until it “quit”.

“Now I go out with someone else,” she said. “I’ve been from Somerset to St George’s with Meals on Wheels. Now, however, my route is in the City of Hamilton.”

She loves chatting with people along the way.

“You get a few minutes to do that,” she said. “Sometimes we’re the only people the client will see all day. It gives me a good feeling.”

As a youngster, she apprenticed to tailor Samuel Johnson on Victoria Street.

“I liked sewing,” she said. “When I had children I made all their clothes for them. These days I don’t sew as much as my eyes aren’t as sharp.”

It was there that she met her future husband, Leonard Cox.

“He used to come in for alterations,” she said. “He worked for Salisbury Construction, a company that paved roads.”

They were married in 1950 and had seven children Michael, Patricia Simmons, Harold, Wayne, Michelle Trott, Linette Mallory. A fourth son, David, died in 2001.

“Raising seven children was hard work,” Mrs Cox said. “It was also very nice. All my children needed was a look from me and they behaved.

“We mothers didn’t have it like young people have it today. I stayed home and raised the children. I couldn’t go down the shop and buy Pampers. We had cloth diapers that had to be washed on a wash board. Washing took all day, but they were good days.”

She cleaned the Youth Library on Church Street for several years once her children had grown.

Mr Cox died in 1994, after 44 years of marriage.

“He was always good to me,” said Mrs Cox. “He was a very good husband.”

Her passion is baking. She learnt at her mother’s knee and still loves making pancakes, bread and Johnny bread for her housebound friends.

“Sometimes my daughter will come in and ask who it’s for,” she said. “I’ll say, ‘I don’t know, whoever needs it’. I just like to give. I try to live so that my life won’t be in vain.”

For fun, she likes taking bus rides with her friends from one end of Bermuda to the other.

She also enjoys spending time with her “grands”, just don’t ask her to count them all.

“I don’t know how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren I have,” she laughed. “Millions, I guess.”