WILMINGTON — Melissa Love Hubbard, 59, of Wilmington, NC, died peacefully on August 24, 2026, after facing breast cancer with the same grit, humor, stubbornness, and refusal to sugarcoat things that she brought to just about everything else in life.
And if you knew Melissa, you know she would probably have something to say about this obituary.
Born December 8, 1966, in Williamsburg, Virginia, Melissa was never particularly interested in fitting neatly into anyone else’s idea of who she should be. She was funny, bold, compassionate, occasionally outrageous, fiercely forgiving, and famously lacking in a filter. You rarely had to wonder what Melissa was thinking—she was usually more than happy to tell you.
But underneath that tell-it-like-it-is exterior was an enormous heart.
Melissa worked in restaurants, convenience stores, retail, and customer service over the years, including Casey’s Barbeque, where her personality made regular customers feel less like customers and more like old friends. She had a way of talking to people—really talking to them—and people remembered her.
The work she was most proud of, however, was helping women rebuild their lives after addiction. Melissa managed halfway houses for women in recovery and understood that people are more than the worst chapter of their story. She offered encouragement, forgiveness, accountability, humor, and hope to women who needed someone willing to believe there could be a next chapter. The impact of that work extended far beyond the women themselves to their children and families, and it remained one of the most meaningful parts of Melissa’s life.
She had a particular soft spot for anyone—or anything—that needed a little extra love. She adored animals, children, her many unofficially “adopted” kids, and, above all, her three grandsons..
Melissa also had an impressive green thumb and loved gardening. She enjoyed playing pool, laughing with friends, and the kind of conversations that probably shouldn’t be repeated in an obituary.
Even through cancer and the pain and side effects of treatment, Melissa never lost her sense of humor. Cancer may have changed many things, but it never managed to make Melissa quiet, conventional, or boring.
She grew up attending Episcopal Church of the Servant in Wilmington and attended New Hanover High School. Her faith remained a source of strength and guidance throughout her life, though, like Melissa herself, it was personal and authentically her own.
Melissa leaves behind her sons, Kris Brock and his wife, Lauren, of Wilmington, NC, and Keith Hubbard and his wife, Emily, of Petersburg, VA; and three grandchildren she was enormously proud of, Theodore, Kennedy, and Lincoln Hubbard.
She is also survived by her mother, Jana Smith Lucas; her brothers, Christopher Holliday and his wife, Lisa, and Cade Holliday and his wife, Amanda; her beloved nieces and nephew, Bennett, Camille, and Tala Holliday, along with many cousins, aunts, and uncles, in Texas and North Carolina. Others who will miss her include friends, adopted family members, and countless people whose lives crossed paths with hers and were better—or at the very least, more interesting—for having known her.
This won’t be about saying goodbye to Melissa in some overly formal way that wouldn’t have suited her anyway. It will be a gathering to remember her, tell stories, laugh at the things she said that no one else would dare say, and celebrate a woman who lived life very much on her own terms.
Melissa will be remembered for her humor, her resilience, her outrageous boldness, her capacity for forgiveness, her devotion to helping people find their way back, and, of course, her legendary lack of a filter.
She wasn’t perfect. She wasn’t conventional. She wasn’t trying to be.
She was Melissa.
And those who loved her wouldn’t have wanted her any other way.
