By Enoch Naklen

Pojanee “P.J.” Fleury, remembered across creative, entrepreneurial, and community circles for her generosity, invention, and collaborative spirit, died on Thanksgiving Day in a house fire in Orange, New Jersey, along with her sister, Frantzia Fleury. Authorities said the two sisters lost their lives while helping their disabled father escape the burning home. He survived.

According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, the fire broke out shortly after 5 p.m., and the sisters were pronounced dead a little before 7 p.m. A CBS New York report described the tragedy as an act of devotion, noting that the sisters “had big hearts” and were “deeply devoted to their families.” Their father and six others made it out safely, though the home was left uninhabitable. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
For many who worked with her, P.J.’s passing represents not only a personal loss but the loss of a quietly powerful creative mind who uplifted others through media, design, and innovation.
To Dewey Dockery, owner of Meet Me on TV Now and an electrician by trade, she was more than a collaborator; she was a partner in ideas and a rare spirit who believed in building alongside others rather than alone.

Dockery first met P.J. through a mutual acquaintance, Dr. Kim Best, who predicted the two would “get along great” and form an “instant collaboration.” She was right. Their first meeting stretched into hours of exchanging ideas. “I told her one idea; she told me another. Then I told her three ideas, and she told me four,” Dockery said. “Before we knew it, a couple hours had passed.”

P.J. ran Brown Eyes Publishing, producing several magazine editions and designing media for businesses, restaurants, health advocates, and vendors across the region. She frequently attended community events, parades, and expos. Dockery described her as “a natural” interviewer who set up her own equipment, coached guests, and created a calm atmosphere for people nervous about being on camera.
Her creativity stretched beyond media.

She hosted a podcast called Invent That, spotlighting inventors, and the process of bringing innovative ideas to market. She held several patents of her own, including an emergency lighting concept inspired by her father. P.J. often pushed others to refine their ideas. “Whenever she saw another inventor’s idea, she would say, I think they could add this to make it a little better,” Dockery said.

She also assisted Dockery in building Meet Me on TV Now, his digital channel hub and media truck project. She made logos, created designs, developed concepts, and helped envision billboard campaigns. She supported his electrician education program and co-developed an initiative they called Smart University, helping structure courses and produce materials.

“She helped me out so much,” Dockery said. “I could give her something and she would call me back in a couple of hours with a full design. We inspired one another.”
Much of that collaboration took place inside a second-floor workspace at Julie’s Management on 257 Nostrand Avenue, a multifunctional creative hub P.J. used to support Our Time Press’s multimedia projects, film interviews for Invent That, and work alongside Dockery as he developed Meet Me on TV Now in the studio downstairs. It was in that same space that Dockery sat for this interview, surrounded by cameras, lights, and the remnants of the ideas he and P.J. had been building.

P.J. split her time between that Nostrand Avenue space, her home, and a studio once used by her husband in New Jersey. Dockery met her husband and son there and often checked in about her father, who, like her, was an inventor.
Dockery learned of her passing on the morning P.J. was scheduled to meet with him at 257 Nostrand to finalize designs for upcoming billboard work. The news, he said, “took the floor out from under me.”

“When you lose someone who was part of your vision, who helped you build, it is a big hit,” he said. “Some people cannot be replaced.”
In reflecting on her death, Dockery emphasized the importance of fire safety education, especially around smoke, electrical hazards, and the urgent decision-making required during a home fire, circumstances that became tragically relevant to the Fleury family.
Still, he returns to the work they planned together and the lasting imprint she left. “We had dreams together,” he said. “She was a pleasure to be around. She wanted to help people, teach, inform, and build. She will be greatly missed.”