Lovelette Brooks died on Tuesday. She transitioned into eternity a day before President of the United States Barack Obama arrived on the island to meet with officials here about God knows what.

I find it kind of cruel because she was the kind of journalist who would have relished the occasion and been able to put the visit into the proper context. She was that kind of journalist - erudite. There are not many like her anymore, and that's sad.

That she wasn't in media anymore, even sadder. Lovelette Brooks left journalism not too long ago and recently took a job as a senior lecturer at the Shortwood Teacher's College. Teaching was how she started in the working world. It was where she began and where she ended. Her loss will hurt both professions.

When she passed, the media with which she worked for many years rewarded her with a couple of paragraphs telling the world she was no longer with us. What they didn't say was how much of an impact she made in the media landscape. The work she did ensuring that the Flair is still here after 30 years. The work she did to transform the Daily Gleaner insert into a credible chronicling of information that women of all generations found not only useful, but entertaining. She did the same at the Jamaica Observer.

But for all the thousands of column inches of stories and features she produced, she got only a few in return.

It is sad that she won't be able to touch the lives of so many people with her infectious laughter, her zest for life, her respect for education, and her critical thinking. Her work with the environment, producing environmental impact assessments for Environmental Solutions and other similar entities will go unheralded, but it was no less impacting than the work she did with the newspapers.

It's tragic that she won't be around to see her son grow up and become the man she wanted him to become. She had always impressed upon him that he be a gentleman, intelligent, productive, someone who would make a valuable contribution to the world.

She sacrificed a lot for him because she loved him with all her heart. She fought the cancer that slowly ravaged her body so she could continue to guide him away from the pitfalls. She wasn't always successful, but it was enough for him to make it through prep school and into high school.

She used her every resource to ensure that he was clothed and fed even though she would have needed those resources to keep herself alive, even for one extra day so she could be with him and he could find comfort with her.

She stared death in the face for years even though she must have been terrified having to face this lethal disease almost on her own, but she was fighting for her son. She was fighting so that he could be safe. She fought so that he could get the tools he needed to succeed. She fought not to die so she could help him to live.

That baton has now been passed on to me to take him to that next level. It is now my turn to make sure he makes it all the way, and I promise you Lovelette Brooks, that I will make you proud, and that he will, too.

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