15.10.2020
Friends,
At some point, everyone reaches to that critical age. The age at which you lose people you love. Who you were privileged to accompany for a large part of your life. Who have a special place in your heart. With whom you shared countless stories and memories. People who have shaped you. From whom you learned and who you admired and revered. And with whom you simply cannot imagine a world without them.
This is probably called ‘growing old’. Or ‘growing up’. Or ‘getting mature’. Because that’s the fucking circle of life, right?
Our agency Grabarz & Partner is now at that age as well.
Therefore, we have to inform you with a heavy heart and full of sadness that Anne Jezuita passed away on Friday, 9 October 2020.
Some of you know Anne. Some of you don’t know her. But everyone would wish they had known her.
Anne practically belonged to the founding team of the agency. She was first our CEO and later our CFO. She has shaped this agency and many people in it. Feared and sworn at by purchasing departments, loved and adored by her employees. Her humour and sarcasm were notorious, her infectious laughter famous. Anne balanced, moderated and if that didn't help, she simply hit the table. Without her, our agency wouldn’t even have survived the first year. Without Anne, we would have been creative for a short time. And then bankrupt for a very long time.
Anne was a fantastic woman. Smart. Strong. Courageous. With the heart of a lioness. With this heart, she fought a murderous battle with cancer every day for almost ten years. Treatment after treatment. Drug after drug. Chemotherapy after chemotherapy. Never giving up. Always strong. Looking ahead. Bring it on, cancer, I’m not afraid. Good night, cancer, I’ll see you in the morning. Is that all you got, cancer? That was Anne.
She wasn’t only the centre of our agency for a long time, but also the centre of her family until the end. Anne leaves behind two wonderful sons and her 90-year-old mother.
‘Fate is a rotten traitor’, someone once said. And never was that more true than now. Because if anyone deserved to live longer and without illness and without worries, it was this great woman.
Anne’s wish was that her funeral would take place in a small circle. But we know how much she meant to many of you. That’s why we have created this email address for all of you who want to say goodbye to her, who want to send her a few words on the journey or leave her your condolence: farewell-anne@grabarzundpartner.de. From all your emails, we will bind a book and give it to her family.
Yes, Grabarz & Partner is now at that age. But we’d simply give everything to be young again. Only a handful of people. Without the success. Without great campaigns. Without important clients.
Because then you’d still be with us, Anne.