By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, DC., May 5, 2019 — I had not heard from my friend Mario Donato, who lives in Freeport, in years but he apparently saw an article I posted on Facebook congratulating His Grace Archbishop Patrick Pinder on the 15th anniversary of his installation as Archbishop of Nassau.
In it I mentioned meeting one of Mario’s a boyhood friends who is a member of the security detail at the Vatican when I was among a group of devout Roman Catholics who accompanied Archbishop Pinder to Rome to receive the Pallium from the Holy Father Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 2004.
I really wasn’t aware that Mario and I were Facebook friends, but after he read that article he inboxed me this message: “Thank you, and I hope when you’re in Freeport we can get together and have a nice lunch!” I shall certainly take my good friend up on that offer the next time I am in Freeport, hopefully sometime later this year.
This “reconnection” with Mario on Facebook provides me with a good opportunity to share a classic “Facebook Memories” photo posted by another one of my Facebook friends, Ta’Shar Cuccurullo, who also lives in Freeport. She initially posted it five years ago on May 3, 2014, but it was actually taken 21 years ago in 1998.
Ta’Shar herself is not in the photo, but it was obviously taken at a function she attended at which Mario was also present. Mario is pictured at center, with Donald Ward and his wife Yvonne on the left and Jillian Bartlett and her then husband John Heath, who owns a jewelry store in the Our Lucaya Marketplace.
Donald Ward, of course, is well established in the insurance industry in Freeport, but his contributions to the second city extend extensively beyond his professional involvement. For many years he has been an indefatigable participant in the wonderful work that the various Rotary Clubs do in Grand Bahama.
Rotary Club Presidents generally serve for one year, and although he is a Past President of the Rotary Club of Lucaya, in which I was a member when I lived in Freeport, it was a well-established fact that whomever Donald wanted to be President of the Rotary Club of Lucaya eventually was elected President.
For some reason or the other, however, Donald decided to leave the Rotary Club of Lucaya, and given the tremendous “clout” he has with Rotary International, he was granted a charter to establish a new Rotary Club in Grand Bahama. Of course, Donald’s wife, Yvonne Ward, is one of Grand Bahama’s well-known educators.
Back then when the photo with Mario Donato was taken, Jillian Bartlett was a demure housewife who enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle as the wife of successful jewelry store owner John Heath.
They have since divorced and today Jillian is a ubiquitous political activist on Facebook, and I suspect that she is setting the stage to possibly offer herself as a candidate in the next general election. Her views on the various issues, however, are so half-baked that she does not stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected to the House of Assembly.
In any case, I thought I would share this classic photo of the Wards and Heaths with my friend Mario Donato that was posted by Ta’Shar Cuccurullo, who incidentally would be a great political candidate if she decides to run for a seat in Grand Bahama.
