Her parents were Itilia Stewart and Godwin Stewart, a farmer. Both of her parents were active in Baptist Church and had a large family. Etland was the fifth child of a thirteen.
Mrs. Etland went to school in Coxen Hole, finishing sixth grade. The days were spent playing with friends, and helping parents with chores around the house and in the field. “We were poor. We had to work hard,” she remembers.
As a 10-year-old girl she remembers a hurricane that hit Flowers Bay with a brutal force and without. “We sheltered under the trees,” remembers the late September evening Mrs. Etland. “That was the strongest hurricane I remember.”
You have to be patient to your parents.
She started her family life early. She married a young man she met at school. The wedding was a simple affair. She was 20 and her husband was a neighbor from Flowers Bay – Lindberg Pinnace. The couple moved into their own house.
In her early 90s, Mrs. Etland spends her time watching to going-ons in her neighborhood. She lives in a pink, wooden house with a front porch facing the thoroughfare of Flowers Bay. She spends her time resting on a bed with a bible next to her head.
For a few years now her youngest daughter Carla takes care of her. “You have to be patient to your parents,” says Mrs. Etland on how to reach a long life. “I am proud to be here, be a member of church.”
