Ringplay Productions

In every generation, in every context, a few rare individuals rise up who are endowed by God with a rich and wide-ranging array of special gifts – gifts which make their possessors particularly precious in the lives of their families, friends and societies. In our time and in our Bahamas, Winston Vernon Saunders was one such favoured individual. Blessed with a powerful intellect, a fertile creative imagination, highly developed aesthetic sensibilities, undergirded by a strong (some might say a stubborn) character, a generous spirit and a gift for friendship, Winston contributed mightily to his varied fields of endeavour – as teacher, lawyer, musician, actor, playwright and cultural visionary – and enriched the lives of his relatives and many friends in this country and beyond.

Raised in a family whose values and personal conduct were grounded firmly in their Christian beliefs, a sense of the importance of integrity, duty and social responsibility was an ingrained part of Winston’s existence and drove his dogged commitment to the completion of appointed tasks even at times when his physical frailties seemed to dictate otherwise. A passionate patriot, he had large dreams for his country and people, and he was intrepid in seeking to fulfil them. In whatever capacity he happened to be serving at a given point in his career, Winston brought to bear upon the life of The Bahamas all facets of his many natural abilities, his extensive training and experience and his seemingly boundless energy. Most recently, of course, as if in culmination of all for which his earlier endeavours had prepared him, he was able to dedicate all his talents and his natural capacity for easy relationships with people of all backgrounds to creating a framework and network of cultural activity that would assist us, the people of The Bahamas, to appreciate and celebrate more fully and more expansively who we are in all our rich diversity, and who and what we are capable of becoming.

I have been privileged to be associated with Winston Saunders for most of my life. I first became conscious of his talent when he was just a little boy in short pants, practising the organ in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Chippingham on Saturday afternoons while I, a young girl in pigtails, accompanied my mother who, along with his grandmother and other ladies of the church, arranged flowers in preparation for Sunday services. My father, a pillar of St. Mary’s, later marvelled at Winston’s abilities when he began to assist as organist at that church. Winston was, of course, like my late husband Clement, myself and so many others, among those fortunate individuals who were privileged to be taught to play the piano — and to love music in a most all-encompassing way — by the late Mrs. Meta Davis Cumberbatch.

When I returned from University studies in Britain and was appointed to teach Spanish at the Government High School, Winston was a member of the Lower Sixth Form, and he became my student. Promoted the next year to the position of Head Boy of the school, his leadership ability, courtesy and commitment to discipline were respected by his fellow-students and admired by the members of staff, who came to rely upon his assistance in a variety of ways. Our connection became more pronounced when I married Clement Bethel. He and Clement had studied with Mrs. Cumberbatch at the same time and, at the time of our marriage, Winston was a student in London, living for a period with Clement’s brother, Mark, and his family. It was natural, then, that when he came home Winston should seek us out and rekindle our earlier relationship. He very quickly became a part of the cultural activity that was emerging in The Bahamas at the time. Our former piano teacher had founded the Nassau Festival of Arts and Crafts and had marshalled a number of her friends and former students to assist her. Winston was quickly drafted into service and through their joint efforts he and Clement became even closer friends and artistic collaborators. This friendship and collaboration would last for the rest of their lives.

When our friend Gail North returned from university, we soon determined that she would be an excellent match for Winston, and we unashamedly created opportunities for them to become better acquainted. The rest, of course, is history. They married and, as a couple, became an important fixture in our lives and in those of our close circle of friends, bringing their own fresh and informed perspectives to the endless and impassioned discussions about the future of The Bahamas and its people that, at that exciting period of change and move towards nationhood, so preoccupied those of us whose work in the various professions seemed so critical to the future. The connection between our families became even more pronounced when, after Winston’s call to the Bar, he joined the legal firm of McKinney, Bancroft and Hughes, where Clement’s brother, Paul, was a partner.

The relationship between Clement and Winston soon became more than friendship – they became brothers passionately devoted to a crusade to deepen among the people of The Bahamas a consciousness of and pride in the worth of their own heritage and traditions. They shared, too, a profound sense of where Bahamian creative endeavours stood in the overall tapestry of Caribbean art and culture – a sense that was nurtured and encouraged by their close friend and treasured mentor, the prodigious Caribbean artist and intellectual, Rex Nettleford. The productive collaboration between those two exceptionally talented Bahamians added much to the cultural evolution of The Bahamas and marked indelibly many of the significant events of this country’s recent history – most notably, the spectacular cultural display that preceded the Flag-raising ceremony on the occasion of our Independence, the historical pageant that formed part of the Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Parliament in 1979, the year of cultural activity that celebrated the 10th Anniversary of Bahamian Independence in 1983, and the cultural productions mounted on the occasion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting held here in 1985, that included, memorably, a production of Clement’s folk opera, “Sammie Swain,” performed in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. Together they led troupes of Bahamian artists and performers to CARIFESTA in Barbados and Cuba.

They also shared a love for the beauty of nature and were both gifted gardeners. As all his friends will know, Winston’s garden was one of his many passions and in it he often sought refuge from the frustrations of daily living.  Winston and Clement were both “night” people, too, and they could stay up until dawn talking, laughing and arguing together while their more conventional wives slept in self-defence. They shared an enormous zest for life and all it had to offer and they embraced new challenges and experiences with enthusiasm and with all the capacities of their fertile imaginations. They drew into this circle of creativity younger artistic collaborators like Philip Burrows and Cleophas Adderley, and to the end of his days Winston continued this dedication to nurturing those who shared his passion for the arts.

Winston had an extraordinary gift for friendship: he was generous in his affection and unstintingly generous of his time, treasure and attention to those he loved. The quality of Winston’s friendship was never more clearly demonstrated and never more cherished by me than during those last, difficult years of Clement’s life, which were so dominated by the progressively more serious challenges of his illness. Winston was always there for him – and particularly during his lengthy hospitalization and eventual death in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Winston’s and Gail’s frequent visits to Canada and their unfailing support to Nicolette who was at home alone were a source of immeasurable comfort to us. At the end, Winston and Gail were there, as they always were when we needed them.  This complete, selfless giving of himself to his friends has always characterised the life and conduct of this very special man and those of us who have been the fortunate beneficiaries of his love and caring affection will miss him more than we can begin to measure.

Yes, Winston Saunders – gifted teacher, skilled attorney, exceptional actor and director, brilliant playwright, cultural visionary – was perhaps, most importantly of all a loving and caring human being. He was a devoted husband to his beloved Gail, a loving son, brother and family member. He was a true and reliable friend and was generally blessed with an ability to relate with ease to people of every walk and station of life. He was a giving and hospitable man who welcomed people to his home and to his heart. He was generous with his gifts, with his talents and with his attention. When he undertook a project, he gave it his all – not infrequently to the detriment of his own well-being. His work at the Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts, for example, is legendary. Winston devoted his energies, his own financial resources and his many varied talents to the development of the Dundas and helped it to become a vibrant locus of theatrical endeavour, despite the criticism, disappointment and betrayal he was often obliged to endure in the process.

His recent work in the field of Bahamian cultural development has been historic, and he was able to draw on the whole spectrum of his talents and all of his passion for his country and its people to inform his multi-faceted efforts. It has been a source of particular poignancy to me that his close collaborator in this work has been Clement’s and my daughter, Nicolette, who has taken up the mantle of her father in the quest to advance the culture of The Bahamas in constructive and sustainable ways. Winston, indeed, in many ways became a surrogate father to both our children after the death of his friend and he did not hesitate to travel again to Canada to stand by me again – this time at Eddie’s wedding. Indeed, he has been an important support for the families of all the Bethel siblings — Paul, Mark and Eunice — each of whom died at so young an age.

Winston was throughout all a very spiritual person and was deeply committed to God and grateful for His many gifts. He appreciated the energy and vigour of more rousing forms of Christian worship, but he truly loved the traditions of his Anglican faith — its dignity and ritual, the simplicity and beautiful words of its liturgy, the richness of its musical heritage. He loved, particularly, Evensong and Benediction, that quiet and contemplative service that seemed always to soothe his sometimes troubled soul.

Winston Saunders was not a perfect man. Like all the rest of us, he had faults and failings aplenty and he, more than anyone else, was conscious of them. He always tried, however, to live true to his own convictions and to the values of honesty and integrity that his upbringing, education and natural inclination had all led him to cherish. He was not afraid to take the difficult path when he thought that his judgment was correct. He truly tried to live out the words of the Government High School prayer that implores: “Teach us, good Lord, to serve Thee as Thou deservest; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will.”

As for me, I have lost a lifelong friend and advisor: he was my student, my colleague, my fellow chorister at Christ Church Cathedral and in the Renaissance Singers, an unfailing support in good times and bad, a confidant with whom I could share hopes, dreams and concerns for my family, my friends, my country and its people. He was a fixture in my life and in the lives of my children, as he had been in the life of my husband. I am comforted, however, that he is now reunited with the many people he loved so dearly who have passed on before – his parents, his brother, his many friends and colleagues – and that he is now in the presence of the God he so dearly loved and served all his life. Indeed, I am convinced that Winston, in his own inimitable fashion, tried to fulfil what the prophet Micah states that the Lord requires of us: “…to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God…”

May you now reap the fruits of your efforts here on earth, Winston. Rest in peace, dear friend.

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