Widow makes QE2 her home

Please see this later 2006 article for more links, photos and features on Bea.

It is probably the world's biggest, grandest - and fastest - retirement home.

But 82-year-old Beatrice Muller believes she's got a bargain, as the sole resident on the luxury liner the QE2.

The American widow has paid £3,440 a month for the past 20 months for her cabin, but reckons it's a snip compared with the cost of a nursing home.

She moved into Cabin 4068 on the fourth deck of the Cunard ship nine months after her husband died on board as the ship sailed out of Bombay.

The couple, from Bound Brook, New Jersey, near New York, fell in love with the QE2 when they took a world cruise in 1995 and had planned to spend a year on board together.

But after the death of her husband, her son persuaded Mrs Muller to take one last cruise - and she decided to make a permanent home on the 67,000-tonne vessel.

Since then Mrs Muller, known as Bea to the crew, has sailed the Suez and Panama canals and seen the Fjords of Norway.

And this week she clocked up her 30th Atlantic crossing when the liner berthed in New York.

'Value for money'

Mrs Muller knows each crew member by name. She spends two to three hours each day dancing or playing bridge and attends on-board lectures and shows.

Her only concerns are that she misses her flower garden, does not like karaoke night, and cannot fit in everything she wants to do.

"It is a lot of value for your money. I have everything I need here," she said.

"Sometimes I feel like I have died and gone to heaven. I have to make sure the crew members do not have wings on their backs."

Mrs Muller is reported to have funded her lifestyle by selling two of her three homes.