In 1962, Melissa took her one-year-old son on a trip to Grenada and Carriacou. She immediately fell in love with the island and, after a few days there, bought a plot of land with no building on it, next to the cemetery. It was her first real estate purchase. She had no money or husband to develop the plot of land yet she dreamt of doing big things with it.
The following year, she took Alfred, from whom she had divorced and got back together, to get to know the island, without telling him about the purchase. One evening when they were swimming off the beach in front of the Mermaid Tavern, she told him. “You did what?”, he exclaimed, “You should have bought stock in Xerox!”
In 1966, Alfred retired from the Foreign Service and began studying tropical architecture. In 1967, he built a wooden cubical shack on a concrete base containing the water supply. The family would spend vacations in this shack.
In 1975, Alfred led a team of local workmen to erect a house that did not need air conditioning and could withstand hurricanes. The house still stands today and survived all the hurricanes that have hit Carriacou, even terrible Beryl in 2024.
In 1983, the US military attacked Grenada. A week later, US Marines waded ashore on Carriacou’s beaches, as young girls offered them flowers. There was no fighting. The Marines drove to where they knew an arms cache had been hidden, across the road from the house and shack. The soldiers detonated what they found, and the blast blew away the shack. The Department of Defense compensated the Wellses for the lost cube.
Both Melissa and Alfred became well-known and -loved people on the island. They would hire local workmen to fix things, then invite them over for rum punches, the local drink made with jackiron, a rum so strong that the ice would sink in it.
In the early 2000s, they were so attached to the island that they planned on being buried in the adjacent cemetery, but then a more practical solution was chosen. Over the years, Melissa often teased Alfred about buying stock in Xerox. He passed away in 2014.
In 2019, Melissa sold the house to a lovely couple that is fully enjoying it. In 2023, her grandson visited the house and made Brazilian caipirinha drinks for them. Her big dreams had come true.