Jamie Gonzales was a good journalist and a better friend. Her tragic death at age 25 as a result of colorectal cancer never seemed fair to those who knew her.

Despite her short career in journalism, Jamie made an impact, and her work was recognized last week when the California Newspaper Publishers Association awarded her first place for column writing in its annual Better Newspapers Contest.

Her column/blog series focused on her “experiences and struggles with rectal cancer.”

Jamie graduated from California State University, Sacramento, with a degree in government-journalism in 2007. She spent some time as an intern at The Auburn Journal before working as a reporter at the Elk Grove Citizen, covering the city's government.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, the Citizen editors let her stay on, enabling her to continue doing what she loved. And when it got so bad that she couldn’t go into work, they allowed her to blog from home. In a time when newspapers are cutting every cost possible in order to stay solvent, I thought that concrete gesture of support was really special.

I know Jamie did.

I met Jamie during my first semester at the Sacramento State campus newspaper, The State Hornet. At the time, she was the photo editor. I was surprised when she made the transition into reporting, and then eventually became the breaking news editor.

It’s uncommon for a student journalist to do so much and actually do it well, but Jamie had a knack for the business. She was even writing a fantasy novel in her spare time.

“It's not hyperbole to say her work helped usher The State Hornet website into a daily news operation,” former Hornet Editor-in-Chief Nate Miller wrote in his blog.

Jamie was diagnosed with cancer in March 2008 and told she had less than five years to live. I can’t imagine how hard that would be to hear, but Jamie never let it dampen her outlook on life. During hospital visits, she was always happy to see me and our other friends, and she always wanted to know what was going on in our lives.

Her condition quickly worsened as cancer treatments had little to no effect.

She enjoyed her 25th birthday party at The Cheesecake Factory with about 25 of her friends. At that point, most of us knew it would be her last, though we didn’t want to admit it.

That was in the spring. In the fall, her doctors told her she only had a few months to live. She really wanted to marry her fiancé, James Carey, but an infection took her life a month before her scheduled wedding date in November.

On Oct. 14, 2008, Hornet Adviser Holly Heyser went to visit Jamie with another Hornet staffer.

“(We) went to see her the night she died, and we didn’t realize it going over, but when we walked in the door it was pretty clear she was on her way out,” Heyser said. “She was on a lot of morphine, in a lot of pain.

“We told her how much we all loved her and cared for her,” Heyser said. “She opened her eyes and said, ‘Hey guys, thanks for stopping by,’ like we had come over for a beer or something. It seemed so automatic to come from her like that.”

A bridal shower scheduled for later in the week ended up being her wake.

For all of us who knew Jamie, hearing she won the award was bittersweet.

“It was kind of hard, because I read her last column over again, and it made me cry,” Heyser said. “I wish she could have been alive for this award, but I’m glad she got the recognition for it, and I’m glad the paper got the recognition for it. The paper definitely deserves some kudos for it as well.”

According to the Citizen’s website, it is the first award of its kind the paper has received since 2000.

“Reading through the very end of her last column, it reminds me how incredibly important education was to her,” Heyser said. “She really valued that degree, and she was very proud of it.”

Whether she realized it or not, I think Jamie taught us all something we could never have learned in school. She taught us how gracefully people can carry themselves in the face of a horrible, incurable condition.

Because education was so important to Jamie, Miller suggested starting a journalism scholarship in her name, and Heyser helped with the process.

“We wanted to channel people’s kindness through her, and we definitely need some more contributions to her fund to make it sustainable in honor of her accomplishments,” Heyser said.

Donations to the scholarship fund can be made to:

The Jamie Gonzales Memorial Scholarship Fund
c/o The State Hornet
Sacramento State
6000 J St., University Union-2nd Floor
Sacramento CA 95819-6102


Brandon Darnell is a copy editor for The Sacramento Press