Alex’s life was a beautiful expression of her wholeness, uniqueness, power and passion. An armor-clad warrior dressed in magnificent beauty, her life was filled with challenges, fears and at its finest, sheer uncontainable joy.

While Alex was ever evolving, her unabashed honesty and fierce delivery left most of us often speechless. Alex was charming and witty with a laugh that could fill a room, but she also knew when to throw down the gauntlet!  Fear was not an excuse to her; it was an annoyance that she defied every day.  She was the definition of “Do it Scared”!!  Alex was that rare person who could meet people wherever they were and make everyone feel important.  While her style and huge personality exposed her to assaults and judgments, she never let them diminish her spirit.  As her sister, Michaela, so masterfully articulated at her celebration of life, Alex captivated you with her beauty, but she held it with her brilliance and essence.  Alex lived life to the fullest! 

A 3rd year law student when so tragically taken from us, Alex was awarded her J.D. posthumously.   In her honor and memory, her class dedicated their class gift to the creation of the Alex Patafio Memorial Scholarship, creating a lasting legacy in support of public interest law.  Alex found her true calling in the law and exploded on the scene at GSU Law with gritty determination, dedication and conviction.  She was recognized as a leader and a force to be reckoned with.  Never one to do life by the book, she was truly the author of her own story.  We could not be prouder of the life she lived in her brief 30 years.  The world was made better with her in it, and now, it glows less bright.

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Her dreams of fairness, equality, kindness and LOVE are not out of reach. She left these things marked clearly for us to follow, to pick up and carry on, to feel deeply as she did, that change was worth making, and risk was worth taking!

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 “For my entire adult life, I have maintained a human-first set of values that prioritizes the right of the individual to experience humanity in their own way.  As it turns out, and as I realized after taking this course, I have been a passive observer of human rights policy….”, as written by Alex Patafio for her Professor, the esteemed Jonathan Todres.

In her memory and honor, we forge on with better ideals and a commitment to take care of one another in every way possible.

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Alexandra, Alex, Aunnie, Zan, Zannie and Ah-lenk-sha….many names, because one was never enough to capture all of the beautiful sides to you, we love you beyond the great beyond.