CANTON ‒ Malachi I. Nichols-Williams was a 14-year-old who loved going to church.
“He would go every single day,” said his 12-year-old brother Geremiah.
Malachi read the Bible and had a YouTube playlist of gospel music and church videos, his mother Pamela Nichols said. Malachi and Geremiah also were enthusiastic about attending activities at Now Alive Kidz Church in Canton Township.
“They spent more time there than they did here,” Nichols said while seated in her apartment in southeast Canton’s Skyline Terrace.
Malachi died Sept. 9 as the result of injuries received when he was thrown from an Alive church van driven by its pastor. A police report said the teen was riding on the outside of the van near his home in the 600 block of Alan Page Drive SE when the accident occurred on the evening of Sept. 6.
The Rev. Rushon T. Patterson II, lead pastor of Now Alive Kidz Church, has been charged with vehicular homicide and felony child endangering, both third-degree felonies, in connection with the accident. He also received a traffic citation for a violation regarding a pedestrian, a minor misdemeanor. His case has been bound over from Canton Municipal Court to a Stark County grand jury.
In addition to attending Now Alive Kidz Church, Nichols said, her sons participated in activities at Trinity Gospel Temple and Canton for All People.
Malachi had his sights set on being a police officer and a pastor, two professions that would have put him in a position to help other people. He had done volunteer work in various ministries, performing such tasks as helping with children, passing out meals to seniors and carrying groceries.
“I miss my baby,” Nichols said.
Mother says pastor was like a father to her sons
Despite Patterson making a poor decision that caused the accident, Nichols said, he is not a bad person.
“He stepped in and was a dad to my kids,” she said. “They did everything together, literally everything together.”
She said Patterson baptized her sons, got them to shower after workouts, and taught them to say “I love you” and “God bless” to her every day, especially when they left their apartment home. In their two years of participation in Alive, they handed out Bibles and tracts. Nichols said Patterson took Malachi and Geremiah on two weeks of road trips over the summer that included her home state of Mississippi and visits to churches.
“This summer, right here, was the best summer of my son’s life,” Nichols said. “He did more in this summer than most people have done in their whole entire life.”
Malachi had been a student in the Plain Local and Canton City schools, most recently at Crenshaw Middle School. The eighth-grader was being taught at home at the time of his death. He wrestled and played football and baseball.
She said Malachi initially survived the accident, even trying to stand up immediately afterward. But the extent of his injuries, including a cracked skull, became evident after paramedics arrived and when he went to Aultman Hospital before being transferred to Akron Children’s Hospital.
After three days on life support, Nichols made the most difficult choice of her life, deciding he could help others through organ donation.
She has established a GoFundMe account to help cover funeral costs.
Pamela Nichols: ‘My little preacher man’
Nichols said Malachi, named for the last prophet of the Old Testament, lived up to his name.
“My little preacher man,” she said.
A celebration of life will be held at noon Sept. 27 at Trinity Gospel Temple, 1612 Tuscarawas St. W.
Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Grieving mother calls son who died after fall from church van ‘my little preacher man’
Reporting by Nancy Molnar, Canton Repository / The Repository
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