The US government sent Melissa and her nine-month-old son to her first overseas post a cheap way: on a freighter. The SS Managua, which belonged to Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, set sail from Baltimore with stops in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Georgetown, Guyana, before arriving in October 1961 at Port of Spain, Trinidad. Melissa and Christopher were the only passengers with the rest of the cargo being minerals.
Trinidad & Tobago would become independent from the United Kingdom in the following year. The US was setting up a new embassy in Port of Spain and Melissa worked as a vice-consul in the visa section.
The US magazine Ebony, which promotes the cause of the Black American community, had a picture of her processing visas together with a Black US diplomat in Port of Spain, presumably her boss.
Carnival, with its costumes and dancing, greatly interested Melissa. She joined one of the bands in the Carnival of 1963. By another coincidence, a local magazine, Caribbean Beachcomber, carried a photo of her in Carnival after she had left in 1964.
Melissa had fond memories of being a single mother starting out her career in a tropical climate. She would go to the beach on the weekends with her son Christopher or take him to the pool in the Hilton hotel. She hired a nanny, Elvira, and invited her aunt Trudy, who lived in Germany, to stay with her to help take care of the boy.
Melissa had recently divorced her husband Alfred, who had been stationed at the US embassy in London. They exchanged letters and he came twice to visit her. By the time she left Trinidad, they were back together again, although they never remarried. They would live together, considered married under common law, until he died in 2014 at 98 years of age.
Prior to their getting back together, Melissa took a trip with Christopher to Grenada and a little island she saw on the map, Carriacou. When she arrived on Carriacou, she immediately fell in love with the island and bought a plot of land on a hill next to a cemetery – her first real estate purchase. This was the beginning of a relationship that her family had with that lovely island that lasted for decades.
In 1963, Melissa was transferred to Paris, much closer to Alfred. It is not known whether the State Department took this factor into account.