Comments on: Denessa Smith 1965 – 2008

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:57:08 +0000

July 28th of this year (2011) will be the 3 year anniversary of Denessa's passing. Having come across this web site, I informed Annette (Denessa's life partner when she passed) of the erroneous information regarding how Denessa died. Annette asked that I clarify the information. Denessa never had issues regarding her gall bladder. She passed away due to complications from surgery for excess skin removal and went into organ failure. It is still unclear why things reached a toxic level in her system, and we may never know. We do know that in the big scheme of things, what matters is the significant loss to all of us in her passing. But we just felt that the clarification should be made. Thank you. Jan

By: John W. Morehead

John W. Morehead — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:20:00 +0000

What a sad story. Thanks for sharing this. I was not previously familiar with her work, and the loss of her daughter. This especially hit home for me in that my wife had gall bladder surgery not long ago, and I lost a teenage son to suicide three years ago as a result of a struggle with self-identity, depression, and bipolar. My heart goes out to the family and I wish her foundation continued success in supporting religious education and tolerance.

By: songtoisis

songtoisis — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I had the honor of meeting Denessa during her work for the Tempest Smith Foundation. She was a force of nature–charismatic, warmhearted, and fiercely courageous. Goddess bless her and those she left behind. She truly left the world a better place for having walked and worked upon it.