An earlier version of this story said that the Brown's homeschooled their son with Helena Brown's sister Laurie Walker. It was actually Herbert Brown's sister, Tracie Johnson, who did the homeschooling. We apologize for the error.
On Tuesday, Sept. 23, Helena Brown, a dear friend to many at the Jackson Free Press and elsewhere, passed away at age 33 due to kidney failure following years of heart complications. Friends of Brown have come together to reminisce about her place in their lives over the week since.
"People who knew her have been gathering at her house every day since she died to share their memories," said Garrad Lee, teacher, music advocate and a friend of Brown's husband Herbert Brown since middle school. "Some of my greatest memories are of being over at her house. We got together a lot over the years, and whenever we did she was always so warm and caring. Her home was always open to everyone and everyone was family. She had a positive outlook on life even after all the medical complications started."
Brown was a social-media associate for Jackson State University, where she worked with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to report events going on at the university and give live feeds. She was also a copy editor at The Clarion-Ledger for seven years.
"Helena was a great coworker and a talented young lady with a great spirit," Eric Stringfellow, executive director of communications at JSU, said.
Born in New Orleans, La., but raised in Jackson, Brown graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1999 and went on to attend Dillard University in New Orleans. She received a degree in fine arts in 2004.
Brown met Herbert, now a financial aid counselor at Tougaloo College, on Oct. 21, 1996, through a church youth group. The two started dating Oct. 21, 2003 and married May 21, 2005. The couple worked together with Herbert Brown's sister, Tracie Johnson, to teach their son, Josiah, now age 7, as much as they could at home and were also looking into homeschooling groups.
In October 2007, Brown was diagnosed with congestive cardiomyopathy, a disease that damages the muscle wall of the lower chambers of the heart. Brown's condition stemmed from her pregnancy and had no known cause. She nearly died giving birth and was hospitalized for a week. Josiah was born six weeks premature and had to remain in the hospital for two weeks.
In September 2010, Brown had a defibrillator placed in her chest, and in December 2012, she was fitted with an IV pump stored in a fanny pack that had to be kept on at all times to give her a steady supply of heart medication. Brown got a heart transplant April 23, 2013, but complications from the surgery resulted in a lack of proper blood flow to her kidneys, which eventually led to her kidney failure.
"I loved Helena's courage in the face of her health issues," Herbert Brown said. "She never let it bother her too much, and she never wallowed in bad feelings about it. To the end, she handled it courageously.
Her husband said that whenever her health allowed it, she went to local concerts, like Skip Coon, and poetry events.
"She was very loving—an introverted but very behind-the-scenes type of loving," Herbert said. "She was always looking out for our son and me and made lots of sacrifices for both of us. She was also very creative around the home. She learned to make her own laundry detergent, soaps and fragrances because she wanted to not depend on going to the store for everything.
Herbert described Brown as very community minded. She worked with the Young People's Project as a teenager and studied community activism.
"She was very intentional about loving people," he said. "She wanted to be that kind of person, and she wrote down steps to practice that in her journals every day."
A memorial service for Brown is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 4, at 11 a.m. at Redeemer Presbyterian Church (640 E. Northside Drive). The Southern Komfort Brass Band will lead a second-line parade from the church to Brown's home.
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