A tribute to Jessica Smith

Jessica Smith died in her sleep on December 27th 2007 – aged 22

A tribute:
It is an honour to stand before you today to share some memories and reflections of a talented, beautiful and wonderfully energetic young woman who we were all privileged to know. We want to use today celebrate Jess’s life because she was certainly something special.

I first knew Jess as a fresh faced graduate – working in my first job at Jubilee Campaign. Ever since I’ve known her, two aspects of her personality stood out to me: her natural confidence and her determined courage.

Her confidence shone through when Danny (my boss at the time) thought it would be good for her to get some experience working in the office. She used to come for several weeks in the summer – starting out as an assistant in the office and finishing virtually running the office!

She didn’t let being the youngest or least experienced in the office hold her back. Jess threw herself into it – especially helping me in the campaign to free James Mawdsley from prison in Burma. She intuitively took the side of the under-dog and I know how proud she was of being part of the Jubilee’s narrative of fighting injustice.

She was also courageous. I remember being on a train with her one day and getting into some detailed discussion on ethics or religion. It upset the man sitting across from and suddenly interrupted – telling me I should keep my opinions to myself and not impose them on Jess. Before I could respond and much to my relief, Jess looked at him with a hint of distain and told him directly, ‘I can think for myself, you know’. That was Jess – like an arrow straight and true - never afraid to engage in the big issues and never afraid to speak her mind.

I also remember smiling wryly one day when danny told me that they’d realised that Jess had given shelter to a girl who had run away from home. Jess had fed and looked after her for three days without anyone knowing! That takes a certain courage.

But I also saw that courage when Jess was ill. I got a phone call from Jess at work a few months ago after I hadn’t heard from her for a long time. She was calling from hospital but she wasn’t afraid to reach out and let me know she needed a friend.

CS Lewis once wrote ‘the pain now is part of the joy then’. That’s why we’ll miss Jess so much because she brought so much life, so much energy and so much joy.

10th January 2008 St Paul’s Church, Addlestone