Myrtle Burrows has been driving for 70 years and has never had a speeding ticket or a traffic accident.

Today, at 98, she is still behind the wheel.

“When I took my driving test last year, the TCD instructors seemed excited to know I am so much older than they are and still driving,” said Mrs Burrows.

She particularly loves driving to senior club meetings. She is a member of the Mount Zion Seniors Club and Special People’s Club. Along the way she likes to pick up her friends.

“Many of them are younger than me,” she laughed. “But I don’t mind.”

Mrs Burrows said people are often surprised that she’s so active at her age. She said the important thing is to stay grateful.

“I go to church, and I thank the Lord every day, all through the day,” she said.

She grew up on Glebe Road on the North Shore in Pembroke.

“The neighbourhood was nice and peaceful,” she said. “Everyone looked out for everyone. The children were very nice to the neighbours.”

Her father Gilbert Dill was a dockworker.

“He was a hardworking dad,” she said.

Her mother Mabel stayed home to take care of the family.

“There were ten of us,” said Mrs Burrows. “I was the oldest girl. As the oldest I had to take care of my other sisters and brothers.”

Back then she and her siblings played hopscotch, and marbles and loved to skip.

“It was nice,” she said. “We all went to Sunday school.”

Her siblings also liked to swim off the North Shore, but she was fearful of the water.

“I never swam,” she said. “I liked to go and stand in the water. My brothers and sisters would throw the water over me and scream and run away. I think I did miss out on not knowing how to swim.”

She went to the Central School, and then learnt dressmaking at the Girls Institute of Arts and Craft operated by May Francis.

The skills she learnt there served her well.

Throughout her life she has made many of her own outfits.

“When my two sons were little I made their trousers and knitted their socks for them,” she said. “I still do dressmaking, but not as much as I used to because my eyes aren’t as good. The last thing I made was a pantsuit for myself. I wore it any time I went out. I still have some outfits that I made 30 years ago.”

She even made evening gowns simply by studying those in the windows of Hamilton department stores.

“I would come home and draw it and make it,” she said.

She wore a lot of her outfits when she was dating her future husband Hyel Burrows.

“We liked to go out dancing,” she said. “Back then we’d go to the Clayhouse Inn, Somerset Cricket Club, St George’s Cricket Club, Aeolian Hall. We just loved dancing. We also loved travelling. After we were married we went to Hong Kong, Italy, New York. Paris. We particularly loved taking cruises.”

They met at a friend’s party and were married on October 11, 1963 in the AME Church.

“He was a taxi driver,” said Burrows. “He was a very nice man.”

Mr Burrows died four years ago after a long illness.

“I still miss him,” she said.

Her first job was at 16, working in a dry goods store in Hamilton. In later years she worked for AS Coopers for 12 years and then Sullivan’s Jewellery on Front Street.

She retired at 75.

“I sure miss working,” she said. “I am still able to move around. I am pretty active. I don’t walk out in the street, but I have some steps. I am in good health other than high blood pressure.”

In her spare time, she likes relaxing, going for drives with her niece and reading anything she can get her hands on. Right now she’s reading the latest Danielle Steele.

She also loves flowers, especially since she is named for a type of rose.

She celebrated her 98th birthday a week ago.

“My two sons had a little celebration here with the family,” she said.

Today she likes to spend her days relaxing and going for drives.

She goes to the AME church, but no one church in particular.

“I make the rounds,” she said.

Her advice to young people coming up today is: “Be careful. Go to church and always call on the Lord when you are in trouble.”

Mrs Burrows has two sons Carl and Allister Burrows, five grandchildren and three great- grandchildren.