Shirley M. Smith

My name is, first of all, is Shirley Smith. I was born and raised and reared on Saba, all my life. I worked about three, four years in Sint Maarten, and then I came back home, and then I worked as a nurse for about 36 years. And then I went in the age home and I worked there another 10 years. So I've been working all my life, caring for people and looking at elderly folks, and seeing to sick people.

I grew up here. I didn't have the chance to go away. In the olden days, my father, mostly they sent the boys, my brothers, they went off to study in Curaçao and Aruba. And we, the girls, had to stay back home to help with our mother. And then while the boys got the education, we do jobs on Saba. I also managed a supermarket before I went into the nursing field. I was the manager there for about 10 years, and then I went to the nursing field.

I like meeting people — I like to conversate and meet people. I like to talk. Everybody knows Shirley.

I used to be a DJ. It wasn't a job, just freelance. I used to open the radio station at 6 o'clock. Rain or shine, you had to be on time. They would call me in the morning — "Can you play this? Can you play that?" Okay. And then sometimes in the evening, I go on, I stayed about 10 o'clock. Because they like it and I love music. I would start it with religious music, and then you go into the country music or any several of music that you like, and people would call in and you'd play what music they like. And then in the evening I had a children’s program. So it was more children's music, with children songs and stories for the children from 7 until 8.

Sometimes I would get a book. Some grownups would like me to read, you know, series of a book, or stories of a book like "A Basket of Flowers," and different other books that they love. They would ask, "Do you have that book? And would you like to read it for us on the air?" I would — I look it up or go to the library and get the book and read it for the people, for my audience.

I'm proud to be a Saban. Very proud. Very proud of being a Saban. Small little island, but I'm proud to be part of the island. Come and see, that's all. And see if you like it and if you like it, well, you go and come back. Which a lot of them do. A lot of people go, they fall in love with our island. And they're back when you look, they're back in Saba. "Oh, we love your island so much. We came back to see you. And the people was so nice and friendly." That's a part of Saba, we welcome people with our friendliness.