’s April issue—is both carefully curated and remarkably unfussy. A peek inside the mind, perhaps, of Miss Ronnie herself. “I really have to feel a place,” she tells me after I arrive. “I enjoy practical, uncomplicated design and it's especially necessary in an environment that is so visibly arresting. Better to embrace that, the nature, rather than to compete with it.
Known to locals only by her nickname, “Miss Ronnie” Elmhirst purchased the bayside property in 2012 in order to build and sustain a new life for herself as a single woman. “The place had been abandoned for 25 years, but it was quite powerful, an overwhelmingly good energy; I understood quickly that the land was witchy,” she says, while gripping a machete ready to clear vegetation. “There had to be a catch, right? But instead of running, I was compelled to just go with it.
As beachy and slow as life may appear in Port Antonio, however, it hasn’t always been easy. Miss Ronnie is quick to cite Jamaica as having one of the highest rates of femicide in the world. “Black women are the bottom of the heap; we have fewer rights than a stray dog,” she says. “It’s serious. But wherever you are, it’ll be a lifelong quest to find people who you can trust; folks that want to support you, friends who want nothing more than to see you fly. It’s a sign of the times.