There is purpose in my pain, says Medikk’s mother

The death of dancehall artiste, Stephanie ‘Medikk’ Williams, which remains an unsolved murder, has sparked a new light and life in her mother, Millicent McCurdy. The businesswoman is now imbued with a passion to help to enrich the lives of young people, as she travels her own new, divinely carved out path of ministry.

McCurdy, who knows only too well how easy it would be to “hold bitterness and unforgiveness in [her] heart,” would particularly like to witness to her daughter’s killers. She genuinely believes that their day of reckoning is coming, but she is careful not to “speak anything negative in their lives”.

“I don’t know what I would say to them yet … but I would tell them about God and give them a scripture to read,” McCurdy told The Gleaner on Sunday after returning from church.

“I am not bitter … bitterness is not of God … but I have been broken. God says ‘Vengeance belongs to me’. He also said ‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed’ and they touched my daughter. But the Lord allowed it. And if I follow the Bible, I have to forgive them. Yes … I questioned God … I tell Him that I am not the mother who suppose to bury none of my children. But there is a lot of purpose in my pain,” the grieving mother said.

Last Saturday – exactly one year after the 29-year-old entertainer went missing, and six months after her skeletal remains were found in a cane piece in St Catherine – McCurdy held a memorial service for her beloved daughter at the Church of God on Great George Street, Savanna-la-Mar. Medikk, who was originally from Westmoreland, was residing in Mayfair, Red Hills, St Andrew, at the time of her disappearance.

Hundreds turned out on Saturday to bid their final farewell to the up-and-coming Overcome singer, whose mother had left no stones unturned in trying to locate her. McCurdy had offered a reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Medikk, led a peaceful demonstration, and had gone on record asking for “fasting and prayers”.

“The service was lovely,” McCurdy reminisced. “A lot of young people came out and when there was the altar call from the pastor, so many of them responded. I pledge my life to get out there and encourage the youth. God has shown me that the time has come for me to go into ministry. God is going to allow things that will marvel me.”

Teenage mother

Being involved in the lives of young people is nothing new to McCurdy, who, throughout the years, has assisted several youngsters with educational-related expenses. It was 30 years ago that the then 16-year-old McCurdy gave birth to her first child – Medikk – and she speaks freely about the struggles and hardships that she faced as a teenage, single mother. She also is proud of the fact that she “didn’t grow her children loose” and was able to send them to college. Medikk wanted to be a doctor and actually did two years of nursing school before leaving to pursue music.

“Even though Stephanie was out there in the dancehall, she was not a party girl. When Stephanie comes here she don’t play those kind of music and let us hear. She started her Rheborn Holistic natural skin care business and it’s still doing well. Her sister take it over and the products are selling at some of the top pharmacies. It’s not easy and it’s not going to be easy … we lived like sisters. But God and time. They didn’t have to find her body, but they did. And I know that a lot of other things will be revealed,”McCurdy declared.

She also took time to thank the many persons who have been praying for her, and also The Rev Dexter Johnson of the National Church of God in Jamaica who has been a bulwark of strength, and Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey, who was not present at the service on Saturday, but sent a representative.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com