Nita Reed wants to put the record straight. She’s sick of reading about Shropshire ex-pats who gaze longingly back to memories of their homeland. She emigrated to the duty-free Caribbean island of St Martin six years ago, and makes no bones about it — no money in the world would persuade her to come back!
“When I read Shropshire Star on the internet there seem more tales of doom than there are good things about the county,” says Nita, who ran the Severn Lodge guest house in the Ironbridge Gorge for many years.
“I live on a happy island where we don’t have motorways, have good dentists, nobody is too desperate about A-level results and if you’re ill you can go into a new hospital that same week. And all the restaurants are worth writing about — they’re French!”
Nita decided to set up home on the French side of the dual-nationality island to see more of her daughters, who moved there with her grandchildren some years earlier.
“We had been visiting St Martin since 1992 and, on impulse, in 1999 we decided to up sticks and move. Most people thought we were quite mad but I in particular, having once made up my mind, could not be dissuaded.
“When you have lived in a house for 25 years, raised a family there and made many friends, it is not something you do without some regrets. But now, nearly six years from the date when we actually moved, I can truthfully say that I would not return.
“What use is a beautiful spring garden when most of the time the weather is not good enough to sit out in it? You view it through glass or you work like a maniac planting and replanting bulbs and bedding plants with a life of a few weeks.
“Here plants and trees flower constantly throughout the year and you spend most of your life out of doors. Houses are built so that you eat out of doors all the time.
“Of course, to get this lush vegetation we have rain. We need it to fill up the cisterns but you get heavy rain and then more wonderful sunshine. February was my pet hate in England — fog, incessant rain, floods, snow. Here it is our high season and most days are like the nicest summer days in Shropshire.”
Nita admits she does “live in dread” of hurricanes — particularly in light of the happenings over the past couple of years — but has made contingency plans.
“We now have hurricane protection set up around the house and if the worst comes to the worst, hurricane insurance. We can’t be evacuated from an island so we sit tight with a bottle of rum and pray to the almighty.”
Broadband internet and Skype, which allows international calls for the price of a local call, help her to keep in touch with world affairs. “We have limited BBC, but even that I found when I visited England is not what I remembered.”
Nita adds: “England does not seem to know about St Martin — travel articles never mention it. It is a great favourite with the Americans and, of course, the French as it is actually a department of France. In fact it is very much like the south of France but with the happy go lucky atmosphere of the Caribbean thrown in.
“Actually, to go abroad we only need to go up the road as the island is divided into two — half French and half Dutch. Consequently, it is a melting pot of nationalities. The languages spoken are English, French, Dutch and a mix of Creole, Haitian and some which none of us recognise.
“The island is duty free — great for wine, spirits, cigarettes — in fact all the things which aren’t good for you! Marigot, the French capital, is a very sophisticated little town — here you can buy Gucci, Versace, Dior — you name it — but we don’t have a Debenhams or Marks and Spencer. Still, I can buy my swimsuits and knickers online!”
Nita’s daughter Lesley runs a business in St Martin, which specialises in villa rentals and sales. She has a rental house on her site, La Currah, in the Terres Basses region, with great views of neighbouring island, Saba.
“All the houses on Terres Basses are on a hectare of land so it’s not crowded. You cannot see the rental house from our own house.”
One of the biggest envies for people in land-locked Shropshire will be the St Martin beaches.
“Two minutes from where I live is Plum Bay, or Baie des Prunes if you prefer it. Here, during the week, you meet no-one!
“It is a stretch of white sand, fringed with seagrapes, down to the brilliant blue of the Caribbean.”
- Are you a Shropshire expat? We’d love to hear from you, and see your pictures. Please contact starfeatures@shropshirestar.co.uk
- Anyone wanting an insight into Nita’s life on St Martin can check out daughter Lesley’s business website, www.pierres-caraibes.com
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