Dear Editor,

The winds howled and raged over the city Monday evening as if in sustained protest and anger at something or someone. As evening turned to night the protest subsided as if the wind, like us, had despairingly resigned to the fact that Pat had departed.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of sitting across from Patricia Roxborough-Wright in the Observer newsroom. Even now I can vividly recall the evenings when Pat would come bustling in, like a gust of wind, swinging her handbag from side to side and sporting that Cheshire cat smile that became her trademark.

Seemingly unfazed that she was on deadline, she would sit, and with concentrated focus, bang out her story from the day’s proceedings in the courts. In no time she would be sending off to the editors another story that captured the drama in the courts, woven together with the detail and nuances that come naturally to only those journalists who bother to hone their craft.

Pat didn’t just report on the weighty matters of justice and the news. She would delight in sharing with her readers the lighter side as well, the humorous side comments of a lawyer or the improbable explanation of an accused. No one hearing them can forget her sudden bursts of hearty laughter as she typed away at her keyboard and relived the funny episodes for her readers.

She knew how to laugh at herself.

Then, in an uncanny mirror of her life, as unexpectedly as she arrived in the newsroom she was gone – off to play another role in another cause, as wife, mentor, social worker, teacher, singer and student, adding some other paragraphs in her life story.

Pat was all about movement, energy, life. It was as if she was on a mission, knowing from the outset that she had less time than most to write her story and leave her mark. The many awards and accolades she won stand testimony to the quality of her work. Those wretched cells that ravaged her body may have caught up with her, but it was too late… she had already written her memoirs on our hearts and etched her place in our memories.

I will always remember Pat as a woman in a hurry who blessed us with a rather short but enthralling life story of purpose. May she rest in peace.

Sam Davis

Kingston 8