Journalist, marketing and PR specialist Cecelia Bell dies, aged 47
Journalist, marketing and public relations specialist Cecelia Bell died of cancer on July 5, 2022, aged 47, and will be buried on July 29, her close friend and professional colleague Cheryl Campbell said.
Bell was marketing and sales manager in the Corporate Communications and Marketing Department of the State-run National Housing Trust (NHT) up to the time of her passing.
In a tribute to her Wednesday, Campbell, a former human resources (HR) manager at the Jamaica Observer, said she and Bell joined Global Directories Jamaica Limited, now Yello Media Jamaica Limited, on the same day over 14 yrs ago — Bell as marketing manager and she as HR manager.
“I left her at Yello a few years later and our lifelong friendship only grew stronger over the years. Cecelia was vivacious, effervescent and the consummate life of any party. Once you met her, you could never forget her! Such was her remarkable personality,” said Campbell.
“I’ll never forget how memorable and special she made me feel on my 50th birthday celebration which she organised, and the original poem that she wrote in honour of me.
“I have lost a true treasure of a friend and my loss is indescribable! My major consolation is that she accepted Christ as her personal Saviour and in her indelible words, she said to me a week before her death: ‘Cheryl, I don’t fear death, and if the Lord should decide to take me now, my faith is unshakeable.’
“These words will always reverberate in my mind. Rest in peace, my dearest friend, Cecelia,” Campbell’s tribute said.
Prior to working at Yello and NHT, Bell worked as a reporter at Jampress, the national news agency and at the Jamaica Information Service when the two government agencies merged in 2002.
She also worked at the Shipping Association of Jamaica (SAJ), being responsible for, among other things, the SAJ publication called Shipping News.
A memorial service for Bell will be held on July 29, 2022 at the Church of God of Prophecy, 38 Wireless Station Road, Mannings Hill, St Andrew, followed by interment at the Port Maria Cemetery, St Mary.
— Desmond Allen