  Entertainment reporter Sherri Wood. (Sun Media File)
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This is a horribly sad day for the Toronto Sun entertainment department.
After a courageous, 11-month battle for her life, staff writer Sherri Wood died last night of brain cancer.
The Etobicoke native was two weeks shy of her 29th birthday.
It's hard to know what to say to you, our readers, because those of us who worked with Sherri don't even know what to say to each other.
Losing someone you love as a friend and respect as a colleague never is easy. But in this case, given Sherri's youth and especially vibrant love of life, the pain is particularly acute.
The last story Sherri wrote for the Sun was on April 15 of last year, a review of a Kool Haus concert by Brooklyn indie-rock troupe Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Within hours of filing, she collapsed suddenly and was rushed to hospital, right out of the blue.
Her brain was hemorrhaging -- she'd unknowingly had tumours for years -- and was fast dying. She was given last rites but, unsurprisingly to all who know her, she hung on. Within weeks, Sherri was on her feet, vowing to make a complete recovery.
Yesterday, she lost that battle.
It was only four years ago that Sherri began writing for the Sun, as a Humber College intern. It quickly became apparent to all that Sherri was no run-of-the-mill intern, or person. We happily kept her on after the internship ended.
From just about any standpoint you could name -- journalistic or otherwise -- Sherri found her calling as a budding entertainment reporter and critic at this newspaper. She had style, adventurousness, humour, tenacity, bravado and so much enthusiasm she left puddles of it everywhere.
Indeed, Sherri quickly became an interviewer and reviewer to be reckoned with.
You might also remember the eclectic reports she filed on the 'T.O. This Week' page in our old Showcase magazine. That proved an ideal training ground for becoming our new clubs columnist in autumn 2006, which she renamed The Scene.
You might also remember Sherri for her weekly Thursday guest spots on Canoe Live, our sister SUN TV station's current-affairs show. Her good looks, striking personality and knowledge all shone.
What you probably don't know is that Sherri also spent many hours every week accurately compiling our weekly 'Sun Spots' events listings.
Sherri achieved a great deal in her short journalism career, and the possibilities for her were endless. But work life was only a small part of who Sherri Wood was. She seemed to have more friends than any other person on the planet, and it was with them that she would trek to remote corners, from Northern Ontario to Thailand.
We often joked with Sherri that she was our 'window to the youth of today.' She would laugh and roll her eyes as she patiently explained the intricacies of whatever new pop-culture phenomenon was making the rounds. She was so hip from a fashion standpoint that, to some of us, she was the walking embodiment of Queen West.
She was a vegetarian, a daily sipper of Starbucks tea, and was the only person any of us ever had met who changed hairstyles by the week.
Long. Short. Curly. Wavy. Straight. Black. Brown. Blondstreaked. She never did settle on a column photo she liked.
The closeness Sherri enjoyed with her family -- mom Debbie, step-dad Reno, sister Kayla and brother Austin -- speaks volumes about the source of her many qualities. And what qualities.
As much as we all admired her prior to last April, the subsequent good humour she exhibited during her battle with cancer was awe-inspiring, even to those in the palliative care unit at St. Michael's Hospital. It was incredible to see a person so tiny in physical stature fighting so fiercely. Achingly, her last words to her mother Debbie the other day at St. Mike's were: "I'm going to beat this thing."
That cancer finally crushed such a tenacious spirit, as it so often cruelly does, only wrenches our hearts all the more.
We are trying to focus on the good memories, the laughs, the jokes, and all of the reasons that our lives were improved as a result of having met her.
We love you, Sherri Wood. If we are lucky enough to follow you to heaven some day, we all will be angling for the desk next to yours, so we can pick up right where we left off.
And we'll bring the Starbucks.
