Sun | Nov 17, 2024

Ella celebrates the big 50 with a week of activities

Published:Tuesday | September 19, 2017 | 12:00 AMJanet Silvera
Pause
Janet Silvera
Attorney-at-law and honorary consul for Jamaica in Barbados, Ella Drummond-Hoyos (centre), is flanked by her siblings (from left) Cherrylyn Gardener, Rosemarie Roberson, Hortense Robinson, and brother Joseph Drummond.
Janet Silvera
Divas Vivlyn Lindsay (left) and Marcia Martindale were in fine form!
Janet Silvera
From left: Senator Dr Sir Trevor Carmichael, Paulette Royer and Dr Marcia Brandon share some lens time with the birthday girl, attorney-at-law and Jamaica’s honorary consul to Barbados, Ella Drummond-Hoyos.
Janet Silvera
Dorma Hoyos (left) and boutique owner Marcia Martindale .
Janet Silvera
Ella Drummond-Hoyos cuts her birthday cake with her son Jerome Brooks.
Janet Silvera
Special niece to the birthday girl and coordinator Julia Hunte-Branker (left) shares lens time with Michael and Pauline Malcolm of the United Kingdom.
Janet Silvera
Linda and Rolf Phillips command the dance floor with the costumed dancers in tow at the all-white beach lyme.
Janet Silvera
Ella Drummond-Hoyos cutting another birthday cake at the fancy reggae party with Marc Sealy.
Janet Silvera
CEO of Nation Corporation, Anthony Shaw and his wife, Tessa, getting down at the fancy reggae party.
Janet Silvera
The youngsters enjoying the scenery at the Farley Hill picnic are (from left) Charlene Osbourne, Jerome Brooks, Natalie Best, Julia Branker and Marc Sealy.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Ella Drummond-Hoyos' 50th birthday was celebrated by a week of festivities inclusive of a church service followed by brunch, a catamaran cruise, fancy reggae party, an all-white beach lyme, and a dinner and dance.

The vivacious, witty, conscientious, God-fearing attorney-at-law and honorary consul for Jamaica in Barbados, fulfilled the promise she made when her mom died at age 57, by indulging in what some may tag, "the most self-centred thing to celebrate life for a whole week".

Her actual birthday was September 15, however, the former journalist and Hampton Old Girl had friends and family members from all over the world doing the 'Bajan' dance, infused with strictly reggae for seven days.

"My mom's death was unexpected, to have died so young, I declared there and then that when I turned 50 I would celebrate for a whole week," Drummond-Hoyos told the gathering at her final night function in St Michael's last Saturday night.

The Synod Council rep for the Anglican Diocese of Barbados was toasted in such a way that the speeches left her guests in admiration.

"When you are friends with Ella, you don't have to watch your back, because she is always going to protect you," said her 'bestie' Joycelyn Gardener Peale.

Her classmates from Grenada who she studied with, described her as indomitable. "Ella is not one who does anything halfway; she lives life to the fullest."

Another classmate who has known her for 39 years, since they attended high school, Pauline Dixon-Malcolm, reminisced on Drummond-Hoyos' days as a drama queen in the school, eventually becoming president of the drama club.

While sister Cherrylyn Gardener, the last of 12 siblings, spoke of her sister as a tower of strength, the force behind the family, "always pushing her siblings to achieve".

When it came to the time for Senator Dr Sir Trevor Carmichael to speak about the woman who has really made her name in Barbados, as not only director of the Barbados Heart and Stroke Foundation, but director of the Cherry Tree Trust ( a micro business finance charity) and outgoing member of the disciplinary committee of the Barbados Bar Association, summarised, his comments were, "She is extraordinarily special. She is versatile".

He compared her to the Ford Mustang, "Genuine and real".

Janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com