Medikk’s mom turns pain into purpose

Two years after losing her first-born child, something inside Millicent McCurdy still feels shattered.

Yet the 50-year-old Westmoreland businesswoman believes that the very grief that once threatened to consume her pales in comparison to the force God has been using to steer her into a new purpose.

McCurdy is the mother of dancehall artiste Medikk, whose given name is Stephanie Williams. Medikk vanished without a trace in August 2023, and after six agonising months, her skeletal remains were discovered in a cane field in St Catherine.

The murder broke McCurdy's spirit and threatened to drag her into a darkness she had never known.

"Honestly, I can't get over my first-born," she said, while stressing that without a forgiving heart, a person cannot truly connect with God.

"I must tell persons about the comfort, what the Lord has done for me, even to have a forgiving heart for those murders. Because the Lord says take everything to Him, there is nothing we can do; so the battle is not mine, the battle is His," McCurdy said. Still, she is honest about the struggle.

"To know that someone got up and murdered your child cold-blooded...it's not easy," she said.

McCurdy believes that God has comforted her through the unimaginable -- and she now feels compelled to share that comfort with others who are hurting.

"We must have a forgiving heart; because if we don't have a forgiving heart, how are we going to reach the connection with God?" she quizzed.

In the wake of personal tragedy and a community shaken by Hurricane Melissa, McCurdy believes she is finally answering God's call by embracing evangelism.

After her daughter's death, McCurdy planned to host an event called 'Broken Mothers', a gathering of women who, like her, were living with the unbearable emptiness of a child taken too soon. That was her mission -- until Hurricane Melissa hit.

The Category 5 storm left at least 45 persons dead, and unleashed a trail of unimaginable disaster across much of western Jamaica. In Westmoreland, where McCurdy has called home for more than three decades, the storm tore through with devastating force, destroying homes and businesses. For many residents, hope was washed away in the floodwaters. McCurdy witnessed the heartbreak up close. She said God spoke to her shortly after the hurricane.

"After the hurricane I felt hopeless, so two days after the hurricane I was standing at the back of my house," she said. "And I heard a voice say, 'This is how you are going to serve.'"

The devastation caused by the storm reignited the spiritual callings she had been getting for years -- callings she said she could no longer ignore.

"During COVID, I had a vision from God," she said. "He was giving me five years to make it right. I know the consequences that will happen if I don't -- some I am really too afraid to talk [about]."

At first, she had no intention of doing a giveback this year. Her mind and heart were fixed on her daughter's memory. But Melissa changed everything.

"When I saw what the hurricane did, [heard] the testimonies, the pain...I just had to do something," McCurdy said. "God was telling me to move."

Now, she is preparing a prayer service and care package giveaway on December 19 at her business place on Market Street in Williamsfield. She hopes the event will offer not only tangible help, but spiritual strength to those shaken by Melissa's wrath.

"Even though persons are going through this, we have to remind ourselves that the Lord will be coming back and we can't lose faith," she said.

McCurdy said she has been quietly evangelising -- praying with customers, offering scripture at her shop, and recently gathering 10 young men after the hurricane to speak life into them.

"I want to share with people out there that, look here, whatever you want in life you just need to work, trust God, you don't have to sell your body. You don't have to steal, you don't have to do anything that the Lord does not want you to do. Once you trust God, you will make it."

Her voice trembled as she struggled to contain her emotions.

"People have gone through Melissa. I went through Melissa and the loss of my first-born, so I know the pain of losing someone, and I want people not to give up," she said.