Commentary By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



On Friday, The North Jefferson News said goodbye to one of our own.

Melanie Patterson, who has worked for us since last June, gave up her post as our reporter and will soon move to Auburn to be a part of an up-and-coming ministry.

Melanie’s a shy, humble person, and I’m sure she probably doesn’t want to hear all the praise I’m going to write about. However, I’m going to do it anyway.

Mel (that’s what most of us call her) simply is one of the nicest people I’ve ever known, in addition to being one of the hardest workers I’ve ever known.

Every day when I arrive, she’s usually the first person I see (because her office is closest to the door) and she always greets me with a friendly hello and asks how I’m doing.

When I first hired her, I was excited about having someone on board with so much experience. Mel’s worked at a few newspapers and picked up much valuable experience along the way. I can honestly say she’s even taught me a thing or two.

When covering city council meetings for Warrior, Morris or Kimberly, she’s always managed to find an issue that will affect people in those towns and report on it with accuracy.

In covering the education beat, Mel befriended many of the administrators and educators in our area that have such a crucial impact on our students. Her relationships with those people allowed us to hear about things ahead of time and also helped prepare us for other things on the horizon.

She’s worked long hours, driven just about every mile of northern Jefferson County, talked to officials and ordinary residents, taken hundreds of pictures and written hundreds of stories.

More importantly, she’s done it all with a smile and a sense of purpose. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Mel’s certainly going to be missed, but I think all of us feel better knowing that she’s not leaving because she hates us or her job. (At least, I hope she doesn’t.)

She’s leaving to go fulfill a higher calling and to be a part of something that she believes in as much or more than this newspaper.

We let her leave with a heavy heart because she’s become like family to us. But, we can rest easy knowing we’ll always be lifelong friends.

Nothing can be better than that.