I don’t know how Cindy Luis did it.

Luis was one of our go-to reporters anytime a tribute needed to be written, the perfect journalist for the job with her blend of compassion and ability to craft a story. It was always someone she knew, because she knew everybody.

She was always the first call when I needed some perspective, but now there is nobody on the other end of the line.

Luis died on Sunday, right in the middle of her living her best life. She stayed in touch with the aina with her weekly Sunday paddling sessions and was a certified docent at ‘Iolani Palace. All of this after 40 years of chronicling the best and worst of times of Hawaii sports. From the Olympics in Greece to the Super Bowl to rugby in Kapiolani Park, she did it all. When we are on deadline we still blame her for inventing the volleyball box score. In the old days, when you actually had to look in a book to find the sports nickname for the likes of Cortland College, she would call out “Red Dragons” before you could get past the B’s. A televised basketball game three desks down was background noise, but she always knew how many fouls each team had to give.

Sundays are supposed to be good days. You wake up, turn on some golf to see if Rory Mc­Ilroy is going to blow another insurmountable lead before turning over to Pirates baseball or some kind of NFL game if the Buccos are blacked out. Add in my weekly phone call from my daughter in New York and it is perfect.

But now? I wouldn’t mind if we skip straight from Saturday night to Monday morning after waking up to the news that Bobby Curran died last Sunday. This time, it was even worse for me. It was my work mom.

Luis brought me back to Hawaii ages ago when she was the sports editor for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, saving me from the flat lands and frigid weather in Nebraska. The Star-Bulletin was in danger of closing at that time, but between Luis, Paul Arnett, Joe Edwards, Randy Cadiente and Al Chase it felt to me like I was stepping into the big leagues.

Those all-stars made a stop to pick up the afternoon edition at Fort Street Mall a can’t miss event. Arnett would poke the bear with his Full Court Press, Edwards would give us this and that to chew on over lunch with An Honest Day’s Word, Bill Kwon handled Sports Watch and Pat Bigold had no fear writing The Way I See It. They were not always nice, but the writing was so clever you just had to gobble it up and sigh through your smile when you finished.

As great as they were, it was a special pleasure when you ripped the other part of the paper away and saw Cindy’s smiling mug above Keeping Score on the top right corner of the sports page.

>> RELATED: Longtime sportswriter Cindy Luis was a trailblazer in so many ways

She had no problem pointing out national slights to the local volleyball community but was not one to be negative, and her columns were the perfect balance to what the mean boys could pump out. One week she would write about girls carrying an injured opponent to the finish line in track and field, follow it up with pure poetry about buying her 4-year-old nephew his first baseball glove and I defy you to read anything she wrote about her son Tiff without a tear welling up. Her first column on him was in 1991 when she bought her 4-year-old a jockstrap and the final one was in 2021 when he got married, with plenty in between to celebrate graduations and a successful broadcasting career.

Her pride and professionalism just jumped off the page and grabbed you by the throat. There are written lines that you remember forever, and she has written her share of them. She used to scoff when I told her to stop gushing over former Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray because the Pulitzer Prize winner had nothing on her. I meant it, and I think she knew I meant it even if she didn’t agree. Whenever she would finish a particularly good story, she would make it a point to ask me if it made me cry.

If she was asking, she already knew the answer.

One of our last phone calls came when she was inducted into UH’s Circle of Honor, and she shared my uneasiness in a journalist being feted by an organization she was tasked with covering. But she came to terms with it when the celebration came, overwhelmed and humbled by all of the well-wishes.

Her reply when it was all over was to tell me that the laughter and smiles that week would have melted even my hardcore journalist heart. She was just doing her job, and if people wanted to use it as a reason to have a good day it is just fine with her.

I’m glad she had her day in the sun. She deserved so many more.

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Reach Jerry Campany at jcampany @staradvertiser.com.