Dr. Melva Fraser

Dr. Melva Fraser was a consummate giver. Anyone who was fortunate enough to be in her orbit was on the receiving end of extraordinary acts of care and affirmation. Her immediate and extended family in particular benefitted from her individualized commitment to each person fulfilling their potential. However, church members, her neighbors, vendors for her Jamaican items and fitness, and friends all can testify to her extraordinary vitality and generosity. She was a principled woman who loved God and a fierce advocate and defender for her loved ones. The source of this unbounding love was her abiding faith in Jesus that animated her optimism and commitment to others as human beings who she believed were made in the image of God.

Melva Lettice Williams was born in Williamsfield, Jamaica on November 10, 1939 to parents, Doris Authors and Aldophus Williams (Mass B) . She was the fourth of six children, Lebert, Louise, Delsetta, Melva, Hilton, and Mavis. As a child, she was precocious and curious. For example, She loved being part of the 4H club, which cultivated her love for flower and vegetable gardening and planting and growing crops. From her mother, in these years, she learned many of signature home making skills that would later make her home such a warm and hospitable place. These traits included making the most elaborate, pretty, and comfortable beds, a spotless home, and to iron like a boss.

Through primary and secondary schools in rural Jamaica, she was a quick study and stand-out student. In her book, Teci Tales, Melva Fraser (2010) details the influence of her school master.

“He often lavished praise for a job well done and acted punitive when his expectations fell short. It did not matter if it was a correct response from a girl in the first grade who was able to tell what was a score . . . or when I was able to tell him the nature of King Arthur’s sword when no one else knew . . . I Iearned something new each day . . . He challenged me to read, study ahead, not waiting to come to class and be taught and he expected us to be prepared; so I learned to do the work so I could participate in class or not be embarrassed” (p. 41).

The richness of her youth was not measured in material things, but in her deeply connected community bonds with her neighbors, her immediate family, the colorful characters in her village, from the town lawyer to the postmaster and excursions outside the village to visit her grandmother. Even then, Melva showed the tendency to be very thoughtful and self-aware. Through many battles of the wills, she learned the lessons of empathy and patience that she later viewed as essential to being a moral and caring human being and to stand up for those persons she loved. For example, she often recalled that her mother confronted the very same school master when his corporal punishment went too far and secured an apology from him.

In these formative years, she was a devoted sister to her siblings and a keen observer of her environment. She appreciated the ebb and flow of rural Jamaica, from the patterns of washing clothes to her father’s farming and weekly travels with the mule cart that took provisions, like yam, banana, and dasheen to the market for sale. They added a structure to life that she valued. She was so proud of her family even though they went through very turbulent times when her parents divorced. As Melva would recount, the most pivotal event of her early years was the decision at 12 years old to accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She had a dramatic conversion experience that left no doubt about the presence of the supernatural. Her faith in Jesus and confidence in God became her refuge in times of struggles and of joy.

After graduating from high school, Melva was very determined to continue her schooling by passing the required exams for entry to Mico Teacher’s College. After successful completion of the first and the second of the three-part exam, the third section proved to be an abiding challenge. Travelling to Hartford, where the tests were administered, was a challenge. It involved a lengthy bus ride and then a long, late-night walk back to one’s home in the darkness-so dark that one could hardly see an extended hand. Her sisters recounted stories of meeting her at the train station to make the walk home and the great celebration when she passed the final phase of the test.

Going forward, her belief in Jesus dictated every aspect of her life and directed her attention towards serving Him with all her heart in church, through teaching Sunday school and singing in the choir

It was in church that a tall, handsome preacher, observed from afar, the beautiful, doe-eyed young woman that Melva had become. As the new pastor at the Williamsfield Church of God, headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee, and a newly eligible bachelor, Reverend Alonzo Fraser began to court her regularly. She taught at the school near his residence. He asked her many times to marry him over a year---to a noncommittal response. The day came in October when she said yes as she sat in the choir pews. In a short time, they sought permission from her parents, and on December 23, 1961, she married Rev. Fraser at twenty-one years old and joined him in the ministry with the Church of God. Heather, first daughter, arrived in December in 1962.

Even while she was a new pastor’s wife and mother, Mrs. Fraser was mindful of her hopes and dreams for her education. Already a teacher in Petersfield, prior to being married, and while working in the ministry, she continued her pursuit of postsecondary education. In 1966, Mrs. Fraser juggled attending college during the week, while Mr. Fraser took care of the two babies at home, including Sheron, who was born in 1965. Mrs. Fraser eventually earned a teaching degree from Mico Teacher’s College. As the family grew to include Patriece, in 1969, while Mrs. Fraser functioned as a pastor’s wife, there were many moves to pastorates in Riverside Hanover, DeSide; Trelawny, and Richmond, Hanover.

The family finally settled in Little London, Westmoreland, where Mrs. Fraser taught first at Little London all-age school. Moving then to the secondary school in Savannah-La-Mar, she became an enormously popular teacher of social studies and mentored many young people from the parish.

In 1972, Mr. Fraser migrated to the United States for the first time in order to work with a pastor of an African American church in New York, while Mrs. Fraser remained in Jamaica. By this time, the three girls formed a tight unit. As young children, all three girls were extraordinarily attached to our mother in that we just loved being around her. She laughed often and generously. When she spoke to each one, each had her exclusive attention. Mrs. Fraser also made an art of cultivating the quirky personality type of each daughter. As her daughters would say, “We never competed with each other. We were never allowed to fight (when she was around) and even though we are quite different in personalities she never compared us to each other. Family unity was essential.”

After returning to Jamaica in 1974, Rev. Fraser moved the entire family to the United States in 1976. In the United States, their immigrant story was not unusual. The permanent move was to Miami, Florida. New to Miami and the way of life in the United States, the family faced so many hardships as they tried to find their way; but Mr. and Mrs. Fraser were committed to her pursuing higher education. Within a short time, she was enrolled in the University of Miami, as an undergraduate psychology major, starting over her education. In the meanwhile, Mr. Fraser’s successful insurance practice eventually made it possible for them to purchase the house in which they lived for over forty years and where Mrs. Fraser passed away.

Soon after arriving, they also began seeking the opportunity to work in church ministry, eventually establishing the Richmond Heights Church of God and a Counseling Center in southern Florida. The church continues today in the same location reflecting their forty years of ministry to hundreds of people over the years. Rev. and Mrs. Fraser practiced a ministry that poured their lives into others, providing their time, prayer support, discipleship and very respected counseling expertise to their church members and ministry colleagues.

As the girls grew up, Mrs. Fraser coped with the demands of earning a Master of Social Work, after completing her bachelor’s degree, while planting a church with her husband and shepherding the care and education of their children. Heather began her studies at the University Miami; Sheron was in high school and Patriece was in middle school. Eventually, she also began working part-time as aide to an elderly woman, she would travel to Miami Beach a few times per week to help support the family while the ministry was in its early stages, as Rev. Fraser moved to full-time work in the ministry.

During the effort to achieve these degrees and transition to the job market in her field, she encountered and persevered through racism from professors who questioned her abilities and employers who profiled her; but she was persistent in completing her master’s and earning certifications in counseling and teaching as well. Her relentless drive and laser-like focus on her professional goals were rewarded in 1986, with earning a position of school counselor at Whispering Pines Elementary School in Cutler Bay, Miami, a role that she occupied for twenty years until retirement.

The years from 1985 to 2000 were very busy ones. She had to be a fierce advocate for her own children in schools, loving us through the usual teenage crises, shaping us into young women and exhorting us to always put God first. The verse,

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and all these things should be added onto you” (Matthew 6:33).

was a mantra of our household as our parents exhorted us to go against the grain of society and not allow ourselves to be shaped into the image of a world that provided no lasting answers to the needs of the human heart.

In these years, Rev. and Mrs. Fraser traveled to England, Scotland and France and returned to Jamaica regularly. The children followed in the footsteps of their mother by graduating from high school, and attending college, and pursuing postgraduate education and advanced degrees. They also met and married their spouses. They also welcomed to the family, Heather’s husband Tom; Patriece’s husband, Kevin and Sheron’s husband, Darryl. Her three grandchildren were also born towards the end of these years. Sam McPeak, Phillip Burgess, and Nate McPeak were Melva’s great joy and pride. She prayed for them every day and watched over their formative years, providing support, advice and guidance to her girls, who wanted to be as good a mother to their children as she had been to them.

In the interim, Mrs. Fraser remained deeply connected to family in Jamaica and sought to make her home to be a place of refuge for her extended family. She filed for her mother to come to the United States and to live with her, which she did, eventually passing away in the United States. Mrs. Fraser also sought to make it possible for some of her sisters to migrate to the United States.

Mrs. Fraser undertook the earning of her doctorate at Barry University in order to make possible a transition to a field where she could work with young people in the private sector or public arena.

As we entered the decade of 2000, in 2001, she earned her Ph.D. in Leadership from Barry University. She continued to be a practicing counselor for an additional five years before retiring from Whispering Pines Elementary.

Immediately she devoted herself to building the counseling ministry with Rev. Fraser and fulfilling their dream of sharing their ministry of healing.

Their first co-authored book was Healing Word for a Sickness Free Life. .

They soon followed with another book, CovenantFamilies. Her fourth book, God’s Economy: Living a Life of More than Enough, is being published presently.

During her retirement, with Heather’s technological assistance she developed her weekly tele-prayer ministry and street evangelism. In addition, she revived her love of gardening and her home became a tropical paradise of Julie or St. Julian mangoes, the sweetest pineapples, ackees and avocadoes. She was so successful that at mango season, scores of people of people received packages of exquisite tropical mangoes that were carefully packaged. She made her home into a comfortable and beautiful space.

However exercise and healthy eating were an abiding preoccupation with Dr. Fraser. These were activities in which Heather, Rev. Fraser and she engaged weekly and as result these years were joy-field and happy.

Dr. Fraser passed away on October 31 in home in Miami, Florida with her husband, Rev. Fraser.

She is survived by her older sister, Delsetta, younger brother Hilton, and younger sister Mavis. Nephews include , Danny, Richard, Clive, Chris and Neville and nieces, Juliette, Janet, Barbara, Esther, Phyllis, Debbie and Angela

She leaves behind her dearly loved spouse, Rev. Fraser, three daughters and their husbands, Heather Fraser-Gates and Tom Gates, Sheron Fraser-Burgess and Darryl Burgess, and Patriece Fraser-McPeak and Kevin McPeak; and three grandsons, Samuel McPeak, Phillip Burgess, and Nate McPeak.