Silvanie Daphnie McCarthy was on September 30 remembered as a kind, strong, hard-working mother who was well-loved by people in her community of Red Ground, Cavaliers district in St Andrew.

McCarthy, who passed on August 19, 2023, was 80 years old.

Family and friends who gathered at the thanksgiving service for her life at Cavaliers Church of God in Red Ground, reflected on her many outstanding attributes, among them her love for family, animals and ability to cook.

“She was best cook in the community,” her friend Cynthia Daley stated in the eulogy, adding that people passing by McCarthy’s home would stop on inhaling the aroma from her kitchen.

“She worked very hard to take care of her children, operating a shop at her house selling pudding, toto, fish, and fried sprat, among other things,” she said.

Daley also recalled that McCarthy raised cattle, goats, and chicken, while making straw bags for sale.

McCarthy was born in Essex Hall, St Andrew, to Lydia Williams. She was the eighth of nine children and attended Essex Hall Elementary School.

Eventually she meet Sinclair Bell and the union produced three children — Bobeth, Kirkwood, and Venice. In later years she gave birth to Kesha Satchell who “became her new ‘Gucci handbag'”.

Determined to do even better for her family, McCarthy went to the United States to work and made annual trips home in December with the obligatory barrel from which she would sell and give away items.

“She loved music and used to keep lots of parties,” Daley said, adding that her friend particularly loved Jamaican singer Carlene Davis’s version of American Paul Kelly’s Stealing Love On The Side.

Following the service McCarthy’s body was interred at the family plot in Essex Hall.