by Joycelyne Fadojutimi

In 2016, Melissa Azzam purchased an Allstate Insurance Agency from her father-in-law who was going on retirement. In 2021, her agency became a Limited Liability Company with a new name – Rose Agency. This business is literally a family labor of love as husband Tony is also an Allstate agent. Tony and Melissa Azzam have been married for 10 glorious years.

Melissa has three big brothers in three different states following their military careers. Hence, she stays close to her mother, Judy Arroyo, a Longview resident.

A Longview High School alumnus, she took her associate degree from Kilgore College before moving on to the University of Texas at Tyler to pull down a Bachelor of Science in nursing, which she made her first career. Despite her now-full-time vocation as an insurance agent, she retains her nursing license, enabling her to care for others in multiple ways. She covers a broad range of insurance, specializing in home, auto, business, financial planning and life while also being licensed in securities.

“I got into the business because of how much my husband and his family loved being Allstate agents,” she says.

She finds time to manage her staff while simultaneously handling writing and servicing policies, often attending local events and marketing ventures. Her competent, well-trained staff enable her to leave the office for her various responsibilities without worrying about the agency being well-run in her absence. It is truly a family enterprise.

“My husband and sister-in-law each have successful agencies. My mother-in-law recently retired from Allstate after twenty years,” she says. “It’s our dinner talk, and we all enjoy it. We love the communities we serve, so that makes the career so enjoyable.”

Rose Agency is known for top-notch community business. As a result, her agency has achieved the Honor Ring level award presented to nationwide-based agents for accomplishing significant growth. But that is not all.

The Rose Agency is very East Texas-minded. In 2020, it organized the Adopt-A-Cop program for Kilgore as a follow-up to Julie Woods starting this program in Longview. The agency orchestrated the Kilgore Hooray for Heroes parade to express that city’s support and gratitude for the Kilgore Police Department.

“My husband and sister-in-law each have successful agencies. My mother-in-law recently retired from Allstate after twenty years. It’s our dinner talk, and we all enjoy it. We love the communities we serve, so that makes the career so enjoyable.” Melissa Azzam, Owner, Rose Agency.

Also serving as a chamber of commerce ambassador, Ms. Azzam assists fellow members in their community service while recruiting new members. In this capacity she has participated in obtaining grants for the East Texas Crisis Center, the Womens’ Center of East Texas, One Love Longview, and REEL East Texas. Working via her agency and the chamber she participates immensely in serving her community at all levels. She believes that by cultivating everyone she encounters and interacts with, she creates a resource to make the East Texas region a better place in general.

“I recommend getting to know your community and supporting it every chance you get,” she says. “The people that feel supported by you will support you in return. I just love getting to know people.”

ABOUT MELISSA AZZAM

Azzam is known for her thoughtfulness, selflessness, and kindness. Being kind to and helping others is a personal matter to Melissa. Coming from a broken, alcoholism home in Tyler made for a long, painful childhood. It led to the sanctuary of the East Texas Crisis Center and a blessed turnaround in her life. It was a case of desperate need.

Melissa have never thus far shared her story publicly because she did not want to bring shame to her family or dishonor her father who she loved very dearly. However, after several requests to share her story, she decided to do so. She “wants people to know that there is hope and that the demons we struggle with do not define us.”

According to Melissa, once upon a time there was a 7-year-old girl from a broken home who wanted  peace in her family because it was filled with love but also alcoholism that prompted various kinds of abuse.

“My mom and dad met, fell in love and had two kids. This whole time my dad struggled with alcoholism. It continued to progress, and he couldn’t control it even after several stints in rehab and trips to jail. I remember seeing my brother picked up by his neck and sneaking him food because he’d be locked in his room and wasn’t allowed to eat. I remember hearing my mom’s screams from behind closed doors. When I cried for her, I was punished for taking her side. I remember sneaking over to my brother’s bed at night just to hold him, because he was so terrified. We lived in constant fear.”

Like her mother, Melissa could not help but love her father because when he was sober “he was a wonderful person.” She considered herself a daddy’s girl who found it heartbreaking to oppose her father, but eventually the pressure became too much, and she suffered an emotional, tearful collapse in school one morning. When a concerned teacher asked what the problem was, all Melissa could say was “my daddy hits my mommy and my brother.” The teacher relayed this information to the school principal, who alerted Children’s Protective Services, leading to an investigation, but also helpful resources.

The subsequent counselling, she received helped some, but the police were called repeatedly to the home. After one visit the officers told Melissa’s mother that if they had to come again her children would most likely be taken from her. Shocked, her mother worked with her counsellor to arrange an escape from this abusive situation and move into the Crisis Center shelter. As in most cases, the mother’s and children’s departure was a dangerous moment, and sure enough Melissa’s father attacked her mother when she told him, but that was the last time. Again, the police came, protecting the mother and children as they packed a few belongings before leaving. They drove away as Melissa’s  father stood outside the car, begging for another chance.

“My heart never hurt so much,” she says. “I always felt guilty for being the reason why all of this was happening.”

En route to the shelter her mother made it clear they were going into hiding because they were in danger. Ever-fearful, Melissa recollects living in a room with bunkbeds, and becoming acquainted with other children who were in similar situations. When attending school, she was not allowed to go to recess because of the threat of abduction. While in the Center, she attended therapy sessions in which caring, kind adults educated her on all aspects of domestic abuse, what is acceptable and what is not.

When her mother went to the police station to file an official protective order against her husband, one of his friends confronted her in the parking lot and informed her that her husband knew where she was and was watching her. Again, she had to run. Working with the Women’s Center of East Texas, the Crisis Center helped them relocate to Longview’s Crisis Center. After several months there, her mom found work and moved with her children into an apartment where they started over from scratch.

“I don’t remember much about that stay [in the Longview Crisis Center] because my mind has blocked out a lot to protect me,” Melissa says. “My brother Marcos says he remembers being so excited to be given a new toothbrush when we arrived and being able to eat sugary cereal for the first time ever.”

She credits the Crisis Center with saving her, her brother’s and mother’s lives. She was thrilled to be surrounded by gentle, loving people who were both very nice and made her feel at home.

“The Crisis Center literally saved our lives,” she says.

She spent years benefitting from the Center’s resources, especially competent, compassionate counselling. She learned to know which relationships were healthy, and which were not, and how to create safe places as she, her brother and mother built new and happy lives. It took years, but the communication abilities and learning boundaries she and Marcos picked up at the Center even enabled them to mend their relationship with their father.

Despite the love they had for each other Melissa’s  parents never reconciled. Ten years ago, her father barely survived a serious car wreck. When he did recover, he was a changed man, leading to a new, loving relationship with his children. When he was unable to get in touch with Melissa five years ago, he called her mother to find out if she was okay. This led to their burying the hatchet and again being friends. For a few weeks they frequently spoke on the phone, prayed together, and studied the Bible. One night, after one of these blessed calls, he died in his sleep.

Melissa Azzam does not keep her past life as an abused child a secret. She aims to show as many as possible that abusers are not beyond redemption and reformation, and neither are their victims. Her support for the Crisis Center stems from how her own experience with it taught her even the most severely broken families can be healed, and in many ways. Her family’s recovery is proof of this.

“Thanks to the tools we were given, my mom retired as a nurse and lives near me in Longview, and my brother is a Navy veteran that’s starting his own excavating company,” she says. “I’m a registered nurse that owns an insurance company, and my dad died in peace with a family that loved him very much.”

Knowing how fairy tales may not always have happy endings, and that tragedies need not invariably end in tragedy, Melissa Azzam, finds time to assist the Crisis Center by hosting a yearly toiletry drive and to spend three terms on the Womens’ Center board of directors. These rescue missions literally save untold lives, but need support from the communities they serve. She makes this clear to those who donate their resources to keep the facilities running:

“Thank you for supporting an organization that helped my family have our happily ever after. You are all heroes to someone like me.

“I recommend getting to know your community and supporting it every chance you get. The people that feel supported by you will support you in return. I just love getting to know people.” Melissa Azzam, Owner, Rose Agency.