Earlier this week, I got some sad news about a friend of mine who freelanced for Patch for a short time.
Jessica Lum, who quietly battled against cancer for a few years, died Sunday morning with her family in Sacramento. She was 25.
She moved home to Sacramento after working for MissionLocal in San Francisco. She was only able to contribute one piece for Elk Grove Patch before other obligations and her health got in the way.
Jessica, a UCLA alumna, was a talented photographer. She won an award at the 2012 Online News Association conference for Slab City Stories, a project she shot while in grad school at UC Berkeley.
Her health struggles were documented in the Sacramento Bee in 2009. I wasn't extremely close with her, but I always admired her strength and courage.
She wrote heart-wrenching posts on Facebook acknowledging the time she had left, but was still bright and funny. She let a 6-year-old nephew take the reigns of her phone for a spree of photos of feet, smiling relatives and her dog. She joked and made Star Trek references left and right.
On New Year's Eve, she wrote that she was "Looking forward to 2013, in spite of the guaranteed unknowns, thankful I can say still say that."
Jessica will be missed.
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