“In Remembrance of Benjamin Lee Mellon”
My nephew, Benjamin Lee Mellon, affectionately known to all simply as “Lee”, passed away Sunday, March 26, 2017, in Lexington Hospital, Lexington, South Carolina. He was 36 years old.
I remember Lee’s death vividly, as Lee is the only son of my sister, Laura Ann Wilson Watts. Laura is now married to her second husband, John Watts. Lee’s dad, Ralph Mellon, died years earlier from suicide when Lee was 16.
Lee married Rhonda Smith Mellon, of Walterboro, SC and had a very happy, wonderful marriage. He and Rhonda are known as extremely loving and kind persons to all who knew them. Lee helped through his church with a ministry to young men in the West Columbia area and pointed them in the way of Jesus Christ.
Lee worked for several years before his death with his step-father, John Watts, whom he came to love as his own father. They worked side by side for many years in J J Fix-it 4U, doing projects of repair and reconstruction mostly in the Columbia-Lexington area. After John retired from this business to devote more time to his work in the church, Lee continued the business as Lee’s Home Repair.
Lee loved working with his hands, helping people, and volunteering at True Life Fellowship Church. He was an avid fisherman, especially enjoying fishing at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Lee was working renovating a bathroom in a client’s home when he became ill. His illness was at first thought to be an upper respiratory infection, then perhaps pneumonia. In less than 3 days, Lee had succumbed to what turned out to be a fungal lung infection, caught from the common black fungus (mold) found across the Southeast, which is found in abundance in wet areas. Without a respirator mask, Lee’s lungs absorbed a fatal dose of this black mold poison. Lee survived on a ventilator for two weeks, but succumbed to this fatal illness and passed into the glory of his Redeemer.
I know this firsthand. I was with my sister, Laura and Rhonda and John and so many others as we together released Lee to be free in the Lord’s presence. No longer fettered by a machine for breathing which kept him tethered to this earthly life, he flew straight into the glorious arms of Jesus Christ, his glorious Redeemer!
It has been over a year now, and all of us who knew Lee and have witnessed the love and beauty of his young life, even today, we are profoundly moved at his remembrance. He is a truly good man, he was our friend, and we miss him more than words can express.
In honor of Lee’s memory, some of us are traveling on a medical mission trip to Samoa, to bring the gospel of Christ and Christ’s healing ministry to the people of these islands. We are joining with missionsofhope-us.org and medicalmissions-samoa.com (Bishop Vaifanua & Eva Mulitauaopele) to bring the good news of Jesus to the people of Samoa. We are working through churches established there and plan to break ground for a new hospital in Samoa, which will serve all the people of the islands, not simply those who are American citizens. Bishop Vaifanua and Eva Mulitauaopele are heading up this work and are being assisted by John and Laura Watts and others across the USA and in Samoa.
Last summer, John and Laura Watts and Rhonda Mellon spent several weeks in Samoa, as a way to bring hope to the people of Samoa. This year, others of us are joining. I will be going as a primary care physician; Dorothy, my wife is going as a BSN nurse. We hope to do our part in this mission, in memory of Lee, our faithful brother in Jesus Christ and in honor of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who brings healing to the nations!
If you would like to contribute to the Mission of Hope Ministries, you may do so at the following address:
Mission of Hope Ministries
PO Box 7000
Pago Pago, AS 96788 Phone 684.770.2415
Or in South Carolina
Mission of Hope
PO Box 2765
West Columbia, SC 29171
Office: 803.530.8805
Fax 803.667. 3465
“In all your ways acknowledge Him
and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:6
Bill Wilson, MD
Modern Stories of the Way 