She was on the front line at the House of Assembly for MPs getting ejected, motions to censure, an attempted vote of no confidence against a premier, and two demonstrations that besieged Parliament.

If she noticed Paula Cox, the former premier, rolling up her sleeves, “that’s when you knew she was starting to get mad”, said Shernette Wolffe, the Clerk to the Legislature for 20 years.

Ms Wolffe, who stepped down last month, is contemplating writing about her time as “steward of the parliamentary estate”.

“There are a lot of stories I can tell. I remember the Progressive Labour Party boycotting the House. We had the One Bermuda Alliance boycott the Reply to the Throne Speech. I could write a book.”

Ms Wolffe said that politics all over the world “has been very vitriolic” but that Bermuda’s House of Assembly had grown less decorous with the island’s deepening political divide.

“I believe it has got less cordial, less respectful. I remember in 2003 when I first walked up the stairs, the late [former finance minister] Eugene Cox opened the door for me and said ‘hello and welcome’.

“I believe the tone in the House has changed and it’s not as friendly at times. They always feel they have to rebut with points of order when in most cases it is not a point of order.”

She recalled Stanley Lowe, the former Speaker, who served from 1998 to 2014 and died in 2020, as someone with “a very good command of the standing orders, who demanded respect”.

She witnessed the famously uncompromising Mr Lowe eject the United Bermuda Party MP Allan Marshall in February 2003, followed by Patricia Gordon-Pamplin of the UBP in 2007.

During a heated all-night session in 2009, Ewart Brown, a former premier, narrowly avoided a motion of no confidence over allowing four Guantánamo Bay detainees to resettle in Bermuda without telling his Cabinet, the Governor or UK authorities.

Ms Wolffe witnessed Wayne Furbert, formerly of the UBP, cross the floor to the PLP in 2010, and the resignation by the former premier Craig Cannonier in 2014 over the “Jetgate” scandal.

Marc Bean, then the Leader of the Opposition, was escorted out of the chamber by the sergeant-at-arms and a police officer in a rancorous 2015 sitting when the One Bermuda Alliance, in government, successfully brought a motion of censure against him.

Ms Wolffe said “scary times” came in 2016, when demonstrators blocked Parliament that March in opposition to the OBA’s proposed immigration reforms.

“We got locked in and could not get out of the chamber,” she recalled.

Staff were off the premises on December 2, 2016 when another protest blockade over the airport redevelopment ended with police clashing with demonstrators and using pepper spray.

“At one point, the Speaker called me and asked when we were going to come up,” Ms Wolffe said. “I said, only when all the members got into the House.”

The day’s sitting was called off, but not in time to avert the confrontation with police at the gates to Sessions House.

Ms Wolffe also remembers “outstanding” speeches.

“Paula Cox was a very good speaker, and Ewart Brown. There was Shaun Crockwell and Mark Pettingill. Premier Burt can hold his own well. I am watching Jaché Adams.”

Ms Wolffe said she learnt to read what many MPs would say before they opened their mouths.

“I would know what they were going to say. Some of the speeches are predictable. But at the same time, it can be very entertaining.”

She shared some unattributed quotes of interest from her notes during her tenure.

“During a debate on an immigration Bill, one member said that in the morning, we turn to the east and say the Lord’s Prayer, and at night we turn into demons.

“Another said: ‘If ifs and ands were pots and pans, then the whole world would be a kitchen.”

Ms Wolffe taught French and English for three years at The Berkeley Institute and the former Warwick Secondary School.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages from St Mary’s University in Nova Scotia, and a master of science in library science from Atlanta University. She also holds a bachelor of education from Queen’s University, Ontario, as well as a diploma from Angers University in France.

“I’ve always been interested in history and politics,” Ms Wolffe said, noting both she and her father got the nickname “Papers” for keenly following the news.

She carried a passion for research from past jobs as reference librarian at the Bermuda National Library and former head librarian at CedarBridge Academy as well as a teacher of modern languages.

“It’s important for one to serve as Clerk with integrity, and you must know the rules. You need to be an excellent communicator and confident and assured because you have to deal with difficult personalities.

“You need to be assertive on opinions and advice, firm but flexible, and stand up for your rights and be honest. My parents taught me that. My dad was involved in the Belco riots, while my mother was heavily involved in the Co-Op supermarket.”

Both her parents died early, and Ms Wolffe felt driven to follow her passions in life.

Now, at 63, she is looking at the next stage in her career.

“I might work on a book. I am not sure as of yet.” She is also exploring work as an image consultant.

Ms Wolffe said she had been accepted into the Ignite Programme for entrepreneurs, and was contemplating starting her own business.

“You may hear more about it,” she added.