MELISSA Clarke, the 29-year-old Jamaica Observer Mogul in the Making nominee who was murdered on July 5, was last month remembered as a visionary whose dream of revolutionising the professional services of eyelash extension in Kingston will not be realised.

At the Thanksgiving service celebrating Clarke’s life at the Olympic Way Seventh Day Adventist Church in Kingston last Sunday, numerous family members, relatives, mourners and well-wishers wept openly for the young entrepreneur whose life, they believe, was unfairly cut short.

According to Clarke’s aunt Panzie Hall, Clarke, who owned the cosmetology enterprise Lavish Lashes, was a determined, ambitious, self-motivated and self-driven role model for many young women her age.

“She was a courageous young woman who knew no mountain was too high for her to climb. She was ambitious, confident and driven. She was ambitious,” Hall said.

“She was so ambitious. She started out by selling clothes in the back of her car before owning her own store. She was confident. She was driven and she always had her eyes on the prize,” she added.

Clarke’s father died during her childhood. After his death, Hall became her guardian and brought her to the United Kingdom. Clarke later became reunited with her mother, Norma Palmer, and returned to Jamaica.

“When I never had a daughter, Denise was my baby. I have never lost a child, but I have had this burning feeling after her death,” she said.

According to her aunt, Dorette Williams, Clarke, whom her family, relatives and close friends affectionately called ‘Den Den’, was an inspiring girl whose life was unfairly cut-short.

“This is not easy. This is not easy at all. Why Denise was killed? I do to know and I am not one to speculate. There is never a right reason to take a life. Now she will never see her daughter become a teenager, but God is still in control,” Williams said as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Clarke’s aunt, Norma Leckey, friend Kathleen Edwards and cousin Marvel Williams also offered also tributes in song.

Clarke was shot several times in her BMW motor car while leaving her home in Washington Gardens in St Andrew to attend a photo shoot at the Jamaica Observer, days before the Mogul in the Making competition climaxed.

During an interview with the Jamaica Observer before her death, she expressed the desire to expand her venture beyond eyelashes, opening a studio which focused on the entire face which would offer more opportunities to young unemployed beauticians.

Clarke’s remains were interred at the Pear Tree Grove Cemetery in St Mary.