Hopetown never fails to offer us at least one special moment, every time we visit. On Good Friday as we finished our walk to the north end of the island, we heard the sound of music coming from the vicinity of the Harbor. We decided to see what it was all about and quickly arrived at Jarred Park, the tiny public park on the waterfront.
There we discovered Bahamian Gospel Singer Leo McCarthy. He stood facing the village with a microphone and small sound system which provided background music. The lovely traditional and modern gospel songs cast a spell over us as we leaned on the white picket fence and listened to him sing. His voice was full of joy and spirit and bought us a feeling of reverence and peace. His lilting Bahamian accent gave his performance a special charm. His audience was small, just a handful of passers-by, but the applause was sincere and his enthusiasm was undaunted.
We learned from a resident of Hopetown standing next to us that he is a native of Long Island Bahamas and makes his living doing painting and carpentry. Occasionally he comes to the Abacos to give free concerts of Gospel music. With him were his daughter, who handled the sound and kept his lyrics sorted out and his granddaughter, an adorable five year old who skipped around the park and encouraged her papa by clapping and saying, "Way to go Papa."
He sang for about 90 minutes and just as he was wrapping up, a group of small children appeared at the park which is also a playground. He gathered them together and sang a special song just for them.
We left the park with a feeling of reverence and peace, inspired by the beautiful voice, the simple faith and the joyful spirit of this humble man.
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