Kemiela “Candy” Isaacs does not know what it means to accept limits; she lives her life to the fullest, walking confidently and with total trust in the Lord. Born visually impaired, she sees that as just another stepping stone in the path to going after her dreams.
She confidently shared with Freedom Come Rain that the Lord had already predestined her path as she shared a story surrounding her birth.
Shortly after her birth, her mother discovered that she was blind, and having made that discovery, she determined to herself that she was going to wait until her daughter was six months old, and then she was going to start partying and clubbing, Candy shared about what her mother told her.
“And she even started practising to drink. Every night, she would get a glass with a stone ginger wine and ice. And so she’s practising drinking. Turns out that she got saved when I was four months old, exactly. The Lord had other plans, clearly,” Candy shared in amusement.
Continuing the story of her mother’s transformation, Candy informed us that her mother used to attend church when she was pregnant with her but found the sight of believers worshipping and crying out funny and would laugh at them.
“And then she’d become one of them. She’d become one of them. So the Lord had other plans,” she emphasised.
Candy, who celebrated her birthday on April 18, said while others might look at someone being visually impaired as a challenge, she, on the other hand, sees it as an opportunity to move forward and defy the odds.
She has been doing just that. After her schooling at the Salvation Army School for the Blind, Candy moved on to Wolmer’s High School for Girls before doing a diploma in performance teaching at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts. She went back in 2009 to earn her degree in jazz and popular music studies, making her the first visually impaired person in Jamaica to graduate from that institution with a degree.
Last year she entered the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) Festival Song Contest and came out the winner with her entry song ‘One Jamaica’.
The gospel singer said before she entered the competition, she remembered sleeping, and the Holy Spirit woke her up with the words, “Enter the festival, write a song and make it gospel-centred. She challenged the Holy Spirit.
“I said, ‘Well, Lord, if it is you that is speaking to me, give me the lyrics to the song by the end of the day. And I got the lyrics to it,” she revealed, adding that God was with her throughout, guiding her.
“He even told me that I would be performing at number five. Yeah, it was just like that. Even though my voting number was six,” she recalled.
Candy said she did question that, as the number she got was six. She said she knew she heard correctly, so although it didn’t make sense at the time, she convinced herself that maybe she hadn’t really heard from the Lord and her mind was telling her all that.
“So I said, ‘Okay, Lord, I see you. And so my faith in God has increased now more than ever,” she noted.
Candy has been walking with the Lord for a long time, as she gave her life to Him at age four.
She remembered singing ‘The Lord Is My Light and Salvation, and while she was singing, the Holy Spirit took over the church, having everyone in tears. And while she was singing along with her friend, the pastor came up to her and asked her if she would like to give her heart to the Lord – it was a resounding ‘yes’. That was April 16, 1989, two days before her fifth birthday.
Candy has never looked back, but she will be the first to confess that the journey has not been without its challenges. While she had moments when she felt discouraged, she said she never thought of giving up on God.
“There were moments when I felt like God was treating me very unfairly. There were moments when I felt like I wouldn’t want to say backslide. Yeah, I don’t want to say backslide. I just feel like I want to go on a strike with God,” she said, laughing at the thought, adding, “Yeah, I want to go on a God strike. I just want to protest, guys. What even got me is, like, I’m out there and I’m ministering to people,” she highlighted, stating that there are times when the minister needs to be ministered to; the encourager needs to be encouraged.
In closing, Candy’s words to others facing challenges are to hold their dreams close.
“You don’t want your dream to die, do you? So you take care of it. Of course, light the fire, and remember, a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins. There is a seed in your heart that’s called dream. And in order for that dream to become a tree of reality, you have to water it.”
Last April, Candy was conferred with an honorary doctorate from the International Theological Seminary in recognition of her body of work and contribution to music.