Jessica Lum, a former reporter and editor at Mission Local, died Sunday morning.
She was 25 years old.
We all knew her as Jess, a technophile who was fanatical about football, family and photography. What many didn’t know is that in December 2008, two years before she started at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and while still a senior at UCLA, Jess was diagnosed with a rare cancer.
Starting on Christmas Day, 2008, Jess wrote about her illness on Facebook.
“To be perfectly honest, I hate the situation I’m in — I’m dying. No matter what I do, the truth is, I’m dying. This cancer will most likely kill me, a few years down the road, maybe sooner.” (Quoted from the Modesto Bee.)
By the time she arrived at Berkeley in the fall of 2010, Jess was symptom-free and had managed to get rid of most of these online posts, so that few here knew she had been seriously ill. No one would have guessed.
The native of Sacramento took on graduate school with abandon. Some students try to duck community outreach; Jess turned it into an opportunity to create a new portrait series, Mission Bikes.
Students are distributed randomly among the school’s hyperlocal sites, but if Mission Local was inconveniently across the bridge, that mattered little to Jess. She stuck with it through two years of school, working weekends as an editor and advising on multimedia projects. Her street photography reflected her love for the neighborhood’s variety of residents and her ability to talk to anyone.
Mission Local would have been enough to keep most people busy, but Jess had way too many interests to be tied down. She went to South Korea with her video class and produced work for the Washington Post.
Her master’s project entailed several week-long trips to Slab City. At the end of it, she created an award-winning website of images and videos about those who drop out to live in the southern California desert squat. To finance her project, she ran a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Through all of this, Jess managed to maintain a social life and in August became engaged to Christopher Tanouye, a young man who remained at her side throughout her illness.
From the outset, Mission Local benefited from her talents. In her first week at school, Jess produced a feature on campaign contributions to Proposition 19 and updated them throughout the election period.
A football fan, she noticed that Mission Local did not regularly cover local sporting events, so she chose to write about the Mission High football team. With Lisette Mejia, another student who also became an editor, she created an interactive piece, “Meet the Mission High School Football Team.”
That fall, as the Bears approached the city championship game, she volunteered to postpone Thanksgiving with her family if the team made it to the finals. Her headline about the outcome of the semi-final was as much a reflection of her own emotions as on the loss: “Mission Bears Lose in Heartbreaker Semi-Final Against Balboa.”
Jess had an artist’s visual sense and the technical skill for design, so she advised on the site and would often send emails along the lines of, “I’m going to do a little work on so-and-so’s photo to make it sharper.”
She loved the collaborative process, and when I returned one time after being away and complimented her on the production of “Heart Murmurs in the Mission,” she corrected me. Yes, she had coded the design, but the idea for its look came from brainstorming with the class.
She was immensely considerate and understood the little things that make office life tolerable. I remember her arriving one day and popping into my office. “There’s ice cream in the freezer,” she said. There was — Mexican chocolate with salted peanuts, a favorite around here.
In recent months, when it became clear that she would be spending a lot of time in the hospital, Jess returned to posting on Facebook, this time writing less about her illness and more about whatever grabbed her attention — family, contemporary photos of her immediate world in the hospital and links to the ingenious outside that world. Always, her humor shined through.
“Amazing,” she wrote on a Friday post that linked to an NPR story, “What do you pack for a seven-year-trip?”
“I am going to eat these without regret,” she wrote on Jan. 9, with a photo of a stack of Oreo cookies.
On Jan. 10, she posted a stark photo of a clock in what was probably her hospital room. The caption: Time.
Jess had too little of it.
She is survived by her mother, Anna Lum, father Bob Lum, sister Bethany Ayres, fiance Christopher Tanouye, a grandmother and brother-in-law, nephews and a niece, as well as numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. In the last few months, she delighted in posting photos of her family on Facebook.
i met her in the slabs such a nice girl so sad
I am so sorry to hear this news. I have such fond memories of the Tanouye family when they lived here in the UK. Chris – we Elliotts are thinking of your lovely lady Jessica, you and all the family. Bless all of you. Seema
Beautiful tribute, Lydia. I did not know this woman but feel as if I did after reading your piece.
A character narrated with so much emotions – pray for her soul rest in peace.
she was a true inspiration. thanks for sharing this piece. life isn’t fair.
I am saddened beyond words by the passing of Jessica Lum. She was doing great work and surely would have so, so much more to give as a journalist and human being. I got my j degree at Cal in 1970 and went on to break through barriers in broadcast news at KPIX and elsewhere. I was fortunate to see so much struggle and progress to now. But Jessica leaves a legacy of courage, creativity and commitment to humanity, though cut short, that will live on everlastingly. Condolences to Jessica’s family, friends and colleagues. I salute her and you all.
My deepest condolences to her family. May the grace of God be with the ones who loved her and right now are suffering this lost.
A life well-lived, and a story well-written, but it doesn’t take away the sadness. Still, it is, once again, an a valuable reminder to me (and all of us) to fully live, to embrace life. Be kind. Live with intention. It appears that Jess Lum acted in just such a manner.
The photograph of green room walls and a clock “works” purely as a visual image, but after reading the story of this very special young woman it becomes transformed into something much more powerful.
Please accept my condolences. Thanks for sharing this touching tribute, Jessica seemed like someone who gave her best to the world.
Thank you for sharing Jess’s story. It makes me tear up and smile each time I read it. Warm thoughts and condolences for her fiance, family and friends.
Beautiful tribute to your fallen comrade.
What a beautiful tribute,well done.
Agreed.
Sorry to hear this sad news. Losing a colleague just sucks. Hang in there Mission Local team.
My condolences to Jessica’s family, fiancé and colleagues.