Deborah Anne Jensen
About
This page is dedicated to my first love, Deborah Anne Jensen, better known as Debbie. Taken too soon.
Below is a poem I wrote about Debbie after I found out she had gone.
Debbie
My first date,
My first kiss,
My first relationship,
My first love.
I started late, but I started strong,
A happy, sassy brunette.
Confident, hilarious, and thoughtful,
And quite probably the smartest woman I've met.
Life of the party, witty.
Beautiful blue eyes, and a charming smile.
In precious moments of vulnerability, your insecurities would melt away.
The real Debbie I feel in love with, behind all her class and style.
You'd get me the most outrageously sweet cards and gifts,
Wonderful gestures from a creative mind.
A teddy-bear card half my height,
Women like you are hard to find!
When we first met, you asked me to tell my life story in two minutes, Debbie.
What a crazy way to meet!
I'm happy you asked because we have so many happy memories,
And even our breakup was meaningful and sweet.
I'm only sorry we didn't stay in touch.
I respected your decision to have new relationship space.
Knowing that one day I'd probably come back to Brisbane,
I hoped to bump into your smiling face.
Over a decade later, I returned,
I am so glad to hear you became a mother.
You deserved a lifetime of beautiful memories,
What I never expected was that your time was over.
I called my mother to explain and finally cried,
My first love had died.
Only three months ago,
The wounds on her loved ones were still fresh.
So I missed my chance to tell you,
What a difference you made in my life.
To remind you of our adventures together,
And to tell you how happy I was, that you became a mother and wife.
Neither of us believes in a heaven.
But I want to imagine you live on as energy in some way,
And find a way to continue impacting the world and saving lives.
Free of any sickness, as the Debbie we loved every day.
I'm sure your daughter will be as brilliant as you.
I've always been proud of your achievements.
I hope my life abroad would have made you proud, too.
We never had a single fight when we dated.
Instead, you simply helped me become a better man.
My first date,
My first kiss,
My first love.
I'm sad that the world has lost your bright light,
But I'm happy that I have known you for three and a half wonderful years.
Love,
- Andrew.
Make no mistake, Debbie was brilliant! People often say "brilliant", but in Debbie's case, it is true. Dux of her high school and breezing her way through a medical degree. If anything, I was almost mad that she barely studied for tests and still did so well; I always had to study my ass off. I was 23 when I met Debbie, and she was 22. We met at a bar, and I was still too shy to ever ask a woman out, but Debbie did all the hard work. She asked me to tell her my life story in two minutes. So I did. And I wasn't modest either - I wanted to impress her. Turns out she was an overachiever too, and so I wanted to ask her out on the spot, but naturally, I had no idea how. Luckily, she just grabbed my phone and typed in her number. Deb was proactive like that!
It really was a wonderful first relationship. We didn't really have any fights, just lots of laughs. We dated for three and a half years. At that point, I had finished my PhD and was about to travel to America. We both knew our relationship would end when that happened, but being incredibly classy, we somehow came up with the idea of breakup gifts. That really did set a precedent for me, and a really healthy one. I remember someone telling us we were a cute couple, and we said, "Thanks! Actually, we're breaking up in three weeks." After I moved away from Brisbane, we kept in touch for a while, but I think Deb decided that to start something new, she preferred to end the old. Which felt like a shame, but I believe she married the guy she dated right after me, and so I was stoked. I didn't really hear much from Debbie after that, but about fourteen years later, I was back in Brisbane, and I realised there was a really good chance I'd bump into Debbie one day, or perhaps one of her friends.
Randomly, I organized a "Conscious Speed Dating Rave Hike" with a friend early in 2025, where I bumped into one of her dearest friends, Ann. We laughed about good memories, but her friend was sweet enough to wait until the next day to text me and tell me that Debbie had passed in October 2024. I was shocked. It was hard to hear she was gone and harder to hear that there were struggles at the end. But Ann was with her until the end, and we both get to remember all the incredible happy, playful memories we each had. I called my mum immediately and had a little teary session. My mum remembers Debbie well. The following weekend I went on a hike, found a stream, and wrote a poem on piece of paper, and that's what you see above. In a way, it doesn't do her justice. It's not a brilliant poem, and if Debbie were watching over me, she might even think it cheesy that I decided to write her something after all this time away. I only hope the poems I wrote her when we were dating were better! I kept a little box of memories of her at my mum's place in Cairns, so I'll have to go over that again soon. Crazily enough, I only looked briefly at that box when I visited my mum over Christmas, which would have been shortly after her passing.
Debbie would have been an amazing doctor. I'm sure she saved many lives. Sadly, her own life was taken, but she did make a heck of a difference in my life, and so I'm happy to have known her. She was absolutely brilliant, and I bet her daughter will be every bit as funny and bright. I can only imagine how sad the family is, so through Ann, I might reach out, even offer to share some of the many brilliant photos I have of Debbie being Debbie. Here are just a few. Maybe one day someone will Google search Debbie's full name and find them, and maybe ask me for the rest.
Rest in peace, brilliant Debbie.
