The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

and JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporters

BISHOP Elton Major had just finished leading an Independence Day deliverance service at Metropolitan Baptist Church when members of his congregation gathered outside his office and looked at him strangely.

They had come with news that would shatter his family: a plane had crashed in North Andros, and Melvin Henfield — the son he had raised from the age of 13 — was believed to be aboard.

Bishop Major immediately called the 34-year-old musician and ordained minister, known throughout the entertainment industry as DJ Fresh.

There was no answer.

That silence alarmed him. Even when Henfield was performing or in a meeting, he would normally send a message promising to call back.

“When I realize I didn’t get a text back, I call his brother Ken because I know once one there, the next one, if those two would move together most of the time, and Ken would support him mostly. Most of the gigs, especially when it comes to Andros,” Bishop Major said.

At first, relatives believed Henfield had already reached Andros, briefly sparing Bishop Major from the possibility that he was among those aboard the Flamingo Air aircraft.

Then the family heard that one person may have survived.

That hope also collapsed.

“Then,” he said, “finally Ken called me and said ‘We lose Melvin’, I said ‘Jesus LORD’.”

The news left Bishop Major so numb that he injured his foot without realising it.

“I must’ve knocked my foot or something because I didn’t even know I was bleeding,” he said. “That’s how numb I was. I still have a problem coping with that.”

“I need to see something. It don’t feel real to me, but it’ll never be the same.”

Henfield was one of ten people killed in the Independence Day crash near San Andros Airport.

For Bishop Major, the disaster claimed far more than a prominent entertainer. It took the boy he had fed, schooled and guided into manhood — teaching him how to tie a necktie, how to drive and how to weigh the major decisions of his life.

Henfield’s mother entrusted him to Bishop Major and another relative when he was 13. She died five years ago.

“To meet him, to know him, is to love him,” Bishop Major said. “Kind, caring, very compassionate, trusting. If he tell you something, he can do it. Might not do it right away, but he gonna get it done.”

Bishop Major said Henfield did not know his paternal father but became fully embedded in his family.

“You wouldn’t know he isn’t my paternal child because my family and everybody they love Melvin,” he said.

A relative of Henfield referred The Tribune to Christal “Peachy” Mackey, owner of the women-only Peach Fit Studios, who described herself as a special friend of Henfield and said they forged an exceptional bond during their two-year friendship.

Ms Mackey lost her father several years ago, while Henfield lost his mother. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day became occasions when they mourned together.

A few months ago, Ms Mackey was forced to jump from her moving car after it burst into flames. She said Henfield stood by her bedside throughout her recovery, reflecting the unconditional support that defined their relationship.

They also maintained a strict ritual whenever either travelled.

“Once we’re going on a plane, you have to say when you’re leaving, you have to make sure pray before you leave, and you have to say when you land,” she said.

Both feared flying, particularly aboard small aircraft.

They spoke by telephone as Henfield travelled to the airport.

“When he was about to board, he told me, ‘I’m about to board, make sure pray and I’ll call you as soon as I reach, but it shouldn’t be long because it’s just a 15 minute flight.’”

The call never came.

When Ms Mackey first heard that a plane had crashed on the way to Andros, she panicked after realising an earlier message she sent Mr Henfield had not gone through.

At first, she had not been alarmed because his work in entertainment sometimes kept him from responding for an hour or more.

But as reports spread, panic overwhelmed her.

“I remember I was on the road, and I felt like I wanted to throw up, so I pulled up by my sister’s establishment, which is before my home, because I couldn’t get there,” she said.

She sat on the porch and waited for her sister.

Then someone called.

“Peachy, people said it looks bad, and it doesn’t look like there are no survivors,” she said.

The shock reopened the grief she had carried since losing her father.

“I felt the pain I feel like I felt six years ago because I’ve never really lost anyone other than my dad, and I never really learned how to grieve,” she said.

Another call then revived her hope.

She was told there was one survivor and that the survivor was Henfield.

“I began to feel so happy, but the happy felt like it was with guilt,” she said. “Like I’m so happy, my person is that one person, but that means everyone else is not their person.”

She immediately began planning how she would care for him.

Friends reminded her that Henfield had stood beside her hospital bed every day after her car fire and told her to prepare to nurse him through a long recovery.

“I never been so excited to just cater to someone,” she said.

Reports suggested he had suffered burns, but she was undeterred.

“They say he has some burns, but what is burns to me? Absolutely nothing,” she said.

The hope collapsed moments later.

Ms Mackey said she heard her sister speaking softly from another room, trying to conceal the news.

“I heard y’all, they say he didn’t make it,” she said, breaking into tears.

Henfield’s fear of flying has haunted her since the crash.

She recalled an earlier Bahamasair flight on which he demanded to be removed after hearing the aircraft had experienced difficulties before departure.

“The people told him, ‘We can’t open the door no more. We already ready for take-off. We’ll have to go through all type paperwork that’s against the rules.’”

Henfield refused to remain aboard.

“He told them, ‘Call the boss. Call the head of department, Bahamasair and open this flight. I am not comfortable, and I am not leaving’.”

The entire aircraft was eventually emptied, she said.

“He caused everyone on that flight to have to come off for hours because they told them they couldn’t go right away because there were some difficulties,” she said.

Ms Mackey said Henfield simply did not like planes.

“We have some people that do not like plane, and he didn’t,” she said. “He did not like plane at all.”

She is certain, however, that he prayed before boarding Friday’s flight.

That belief has given her some peace.

She remembered him as an exceptional father, a loyal supporter, a man of faith and a presence that lit up a room.