The death of an elderly woman in a house fire left relatives and neighbours shocked and saddened yesterday afternoon.

Grace Cross, as identified by relatives though the name has not been released by the Police, was an avid gardener specialising in flowers.

In particular, according to her first cousin who did not wish to be named, she loved violets which she kept in a greenhouse on the side of her house.

The 87-year-old, mother of three men, would spend her days tending to her treasured flowers.

Her first cousin yesterday said she was a "grand old lady."

He said: "I did a job up here three months ago. When she wants something done in the carpentry area, I come up. I helped hang a door on her plant area.

She grows violets and she loved flowers, but violets were her speciality. Her day was about her looking after her plants.

"She was a grand old lady and she lived her life as full as she could live it. It was unfortunate and unexpected."

The fire broke out in the Scott's Hill, Sandys home yesterday morning sometime before 10 a.m.

One of her sons arrived at the pink home and after seeing smoke coming out of the house, rushed to the church construction site across the road to find help.

Three workers ran back to the house with him and tried to break the windows to get into the house. After being overwhelmed with the smoke, they called the fire department.

Just after 10 a.m. the Port Royal Fire Department arrived at the one-storey house. Smoke was coming out of the windows, but no flames could be seen.

Her son told them that his mother was in the house and they found her body in the back of the house unconscious.

The firefighters recovered the body and began CPR at the scene until an ambulance arrived and Ms. Cross was taken to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where she died of her injuries.

Fire fighters managed to control the fire after about 15 minutes and neighbours said they were not aware that anything had happened.

Earlier yesterday, Police said they had not ruled out foul play as the cause of the fire.

Last night a Police spokesman said the cause was still under investigation.