She feared no-one be it minister or prime minister and, during her long tenure as president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), her sharp tongue was always ready to uncoil.

The feisty, small-framed, be-wigged chief spokeswoman for the island nurses, Edith Allwood-Anderson, was as tough as nails when it came to negotiations for improved salaries and benefits for her colleagues.

Through these negotiations everyone noted that she was tough but fair.

Allwood-Anderson has "thrown in the towel after 35 years," and now describes herself as a "lady of leisure".

However, never far from her lips are issues concerning the welfare of her beloved nurses.

"My dear, I have had some health challenges involving my eyes which I had a surgery on. It did not do so well. I was very ill, but my doctors are pleased with my progress," Allwood-Anderson told The Sunday Gleaner in her distinctive style.

"So, after 35 years, I have done my best and I can throw in the towel. I am home now. I have become a lady of leisure and enjoying my grand children."

Offering her characteristic dry laugh, the former union leader said only recently a colleague reminded her that her 35 years as a servant and advocate was equivalent to "100 years" and she has no plans to resume her performance on that stage.

allow the current leaders to shine

"However, I sometimes feel the need to make clarification on some matters and offer background information on some issues. I have to be mindful, however, that the NAJ has new leadership and you have to be careful in how you offer advice, and allow the current leaders to shine," she stated.

Allwood-Anderson said in her long career as a nurse's advocate, two incidents stood out.

Among them was her first NAJ-led demonstration in front of the Kingston School of Nursing on Half-Way Tree Road several years ago.

According to her, then finance minister Omar Davies who was on his way to Parliament stopped to reason with them.

"We were in no mood to listen so the minister, after trying unsuccessfully to get a conversation going, must have thought, if he can't beat them, then would join them. So he just joined us and started dancing with us until he left for Parliament," she recalled.

She also recalled the occasion a promise made by then Opposition Jamaica Labour Party spokesman on finance Audley Shaw, prior to the 2007 general elections.

"Everybody promise everything in opposition. So Mr Shaw promise to double the nurses salary if his government won. So when they won and we confronted them, it was denied. So we produced the tape," she recalled.