Grace, born in Whalsay in 1924, grew up, in a home where she heard many old songs sung by her father and her uncles. She said they could sing for a whole night without singing the same song twice. She also learned songs that the Scots girls brought north with them to Shetland’s herring stations where she also worked, and learned others from gramophone records. She celebrated her 91st birthday recently  (January 2015).