Dr Cherise Francis-Windle celebrates in style!

Chester Francis-Jackson, Contributor

My darlings, there are very special moments in our everyday lives, and when they come around, the socially savvy know it's a once-in-a-lifetime moment to not only celebrate the occasion, but to do so with family and friends, adding that extra cachet to these events and make them oh-so-very special!

Well, 2011 has been a very special year of milestones for Dr Cherise Francis-Windle, formerly of Linstead, St Catherine, and Stony Hill, St Andrew, who now lives in California and New York. It's the year she celebrated a very special birthday, the number of which she will not share, but suffice to say, it's a very special milestone. And in August, the St Catherine High School and University of the West Indies School of Nursing graduate completed her doctoral thesis specialising in psychiatry and dementia care.

And so it is that with a year of personal milestones and achievements, the beautiful Dr Francis-Windle decided that nothing short of a memorable celebration would do to commemorate these milestones. And so the word went out early that for her celebration, it would be destination Jamaica for a weekend of celebration for a short list of family and friends, who jetted in from all over, for a weekend that culminated with style extravaganza, on Saturday, November 26, under the skies on the rolling beachfront lawns of the lovely Villa Viento in Harmony Hall, near Ocho Rios.

My dears, the celebrations began on Thursday (Nov 24) in Stony Hill, with a traditional Jamaican dinner, hosted by family friend, Dennis Lee. Guests were treated to a fare of Jamaican dishes, topped by champagne that signalled the start of the celebratory weekend. On Friday evening, the partying moved to Evita's Italian Restaurant, in Ocho Rios, for an official welcome cocktail reception and ended in a party marathon at Ocho Rios hot-spot Ocean Eleven. That was such a humdinger, those who attended are still raving about the outing!

But that, my dears, was the opening prelude for what was to be one fabulous main course - the gala celebration on Saturday at Villa Viento!

Luvs, the dress code for this event was all white, but my dears, the milestone celebrant and her daughter, Victoria, made their entrance in imperial red! Impervious to the sea of white billowing in the perky night wind, they added just the right element of élan to what was already a style-perfect outing!

The evening began, with a cocktail reception à la poolside, with the awesomely talented Della Manley, accompanied by Rupert Bent Jr, the featured cabaret act. And my dears, Manley was at her fabulous best, her repertoire being a liberal sampling of traditional Jamaican folk and traditional songs, as well as a number of her original scores, and it made for fabulous easy listening. As she crooned away, guests were treated to premium cocktails and we are indeed talking fabulously relaxed here and nothing but!

Cocktails taken, guests were then invited to dinner which was taken in an alfresco seaside setting, with a party-size dancefloor and stage dominating the dining area, the Caribbean Sea providing the picture-perfect backdrop to the affair! Food and events stylist Jackie Tyson served up a culinary sampling of cosmopolitana that was simply a journey on the fab side of culinaria and pumpkins how! Dinner was set to the sound of steel band music, provided by the Star-Jam Steel Orchestra.

Dinner taken, it was then on to prime time, with the superb talent of Myrna Hague Bradshaw, backed by the talented Marjorie Whylie on piano, Desi Jones on drums, Dale Haslam on bass and Ian Hird on saxophone. A command performer, she took to the stage and gave one simply flawless performance, with depth, professionalism and style content like only a diva can.

The love-fest that followed her performance was an open microphone that saw friends and family showering the doc with toasts after toasts, extolling her virtues, values and guiding principles. Noted and celebrated tenor Carl Bliss ended the love-fest by serenading the celebrant with the song, Time After Time!

The the love-fest of toasts done, renowned DJ and musicologist Andrew Henry took musical honours, with a slew of music from yesteryear, today and tomorrow that had guests partying up a storm way into the morning.

Among those sharing in the momentous celebrations included Dr Francis-Windle's mother, the charming Frances Allison, her siblings Richard and his wife Karen and their daughters, Sheikinah, Gloriel and Roshanna; Bishop Howard Francis and his wife, Marcella Ward-Francis, and their son, Ordean, his sibling, the lovely Cleodean Francis-Cooper, and her husband, Andrel.

Also out were the supremely elegant Maureen Shaw; hotelier Brian Sang, in from Negril; the fabulously lovely Trinidadian beauty and former Miss Universe, Wendy Fitzwilliam, looking positively fabulous; the elegant Louise Oates, (in from Florida), her daughter, the lovely Devan Oates, and her companion, banker George Fraser, jetting in from the Big Apple. Also out were the lovely Becky Fraser, Lynn Frazer-McBride, Jasmine Frazer; the charming Shirley Shaw; the affable Conrad McCook; the stunning Moya Hamilton-Ashby; the elegant Angela Holgate-Murray; Kenneth Cyrus; the vivacious Blossom Barton; and the engagingly lovely Marcia Elliott; who all flew in from New York. Also celebrating was the fab Dahlia Bell, who jetted in from Atlanta, Georgia, with Samuel Jackson and wife Joy Paisley, the gorgeous Esther Bernard-Chapman and her stunning sibling Berril Bernard - jetting in from California; Dr Curtis Wilkinson and wife Alsia Aris-Wilkinson, and the lovely Monica Harvey-Palmer. Horace Bennett, Wayne Barton, in from Montego Bay; Joseph and Claudia Messam, in from Linstead; Patrick Pitter, in from Kingston; as was the charming Julia Steele and her daughter Stacy, the lovely Kendra Holgate and the dapper Larry Cephas.