It's always sad when you receive news that a former coworker has passed away.

It's so much worse when that coworker was a kind, gentle, compassionate soul who spent her life fighting against social injustices the best way she knew how: with her writing.

And she was a hell of a writer.

The entire FLORIDA TODAY community was saddened to learn that Annette Clifford, who regaled Brevard County for more than a decade with her parenting column that started in the late 1990s and later with her biting editorials holding government officials accountable, died this week after a long illness. She was only 69 years old.

Born in Asheville, N.C, in 1956 and raised in Raleigh, Annette lived an adventurous life before settling down in Satellite Beach with her husband Tom ― whom she married in 1978 ― a

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