As we reached the end of 2019 I had stood in my garden and watched fireworks going off, and all I could think was thank God that totally shit year was over. I had spent most of it trying to save my brand and business, and then the worst hurricane in living memory ripped through the Bahamas utterly destroying neighboring islands and I spent the rest of the year trying to help rebuild people’s lives and feeling fairly shattered by what was happening all around.

The fireworks in my garden signaled not only the end of our fundraising dinner for the Global Empowerment Mission, a responsible, smart, hands-on foundation who I was working with but also the end of THAT year. Thank God.

Music played, the ice clinked, guests swarmed on the terrace and down the drive as the Fireworks were let off into the inky sky. We danced, laughed and lingered as we welcomed in this new decade together, hopeful for the future.

HA!

Little did I know. Little did any of us know.

We have all felt the unbearable crush of Covid of this year. It manifests itself in different ways. Like so many others I did not see my mother for many months and even now I still have not hugged her. I miss the touch of my mother. And I worry about my kids. Life is complicated enough to tango through let alone layered with a pandemic. I worry about my little shop on the island. It’s been closed for too long. I worry about the island itself, there are still too few tourists. I worry about our Food Bank, can we sustain it? Then I worry that I won’t be able to sleep, and then I can’t sleep.

But a bright highlight of the year for me has been working for Hester Bly. I’ve had a small hand in ushering the brand forward, before lockdown, during lockdown, in and out of current lockdowns.

Hester Bly delivers ‘forever’ dresses. Time less. Flattering. Something that Domino will be able to inherit. Crafted from crepe de chine silk, thin enough for a Bahamian Christmas, yet thick enough for an Autumn afternoon in Avignon. A brand anchored by tales of two women who showed resilience in unprecedented times, and collections that carry stories about the wonder of travel.