Writing for Michele was a daunting task. When you respect someone it’s hard to submit your work to their judgment. But that paled in comparison to the responsibility that comes from writing about her –and trying to justice to such an inspiring person.

When I was graduating from St. Ed’s, Michele invited me to coffee to talk about my plans for the future. To be honest, it wasn’t so much an invitation as much an order.

I didn’t really want to face her with my lack of a plan, as it was scary enough to admit to myself I did not know what was coming next. But even though she had gone from being this intimidating newspaper woman with an amazing life story to a dear friend who had shown genuine compassion, I still didn’t want to run the risk of disappointing her.

But I knew better than to try to lie about what I thought I might do. We all know she could see right through deception.

In that conversation, she told me something that will always stick with me: “When you’re trying to decide what to do with your life, decide on whatever will make it more interesting.” That advice could have been easy to dismiss coming from anyone else. But Michele had lived that way, and that made her words impossible to ignore.

A lot of students here today got that same debrief because she cared enough to be invested in our lives inside and outside of the classroom.

As students we had a very different background and experienced much less than her. But she still saw so many of us as friends. Speaking for myself, I can’t tell you how much that meant.

When I’ve talked to people who knew her for decades, through her work in journalism or politics, it strikes me that they all describe her like I would. We all knew the exact same Michele. She didn’t show a different face to different people. I don’t think she was capable of the masks that so many of us can wear depending on who we are with.

She was so earnest and filled with conviction to make clear how she truly felt. As her friends, we were lucky to have someone like that in our corner: someone who would tell us how it really is.

And the irony of it all is that when I first met her, I thought she was so intimidating; a sheer force of nature. But even with all that will, energy and unrelenting inquisitiveness, you didn’t have to talk to her long to realize that kindness and generosity went to her very core.

She helped some students enter journalism who had never considered it as a career before meeting her. She inspired others to pursue their dreams in other parts of the world. Whatever we were aiming for, I think we were more likely to give up on ourselves than Michele was to let us.

As her students, we could not have asked for a better mentor to help us find our voice. Those of us who got to know her better, were even more blessed to count her as a friend.

I miss Michele deeply. But she always taught us not to bury the lede. The real story here is how blessed we were to have been touched by such an amazing life.