Celebration Of Life

About 50 members of our family met today to say our final good byes to my sister, Sharon, who unexpectedly passed away at home last Saturday morning, June 16.



Sharon would have loved it.  Everything was decorated in purple, her favorite color, and most everyone wore purple of some sort.


My niece, Darla, worked hours on making beautiful purple pins for everyone to wear, each one different.



We had planned to have this gathering at my house but the weather forced us to move it indoors.  Sharon and Jim’s church is currently meeting at the local high school auditorium.  Sharon wanted only family at her memorial yet the church graciously rented a room at the school for us and provided a veritable feast for after the service.



My brother from Reno is a retired pastor and he once again filled the role of Pastor to the entire family.  What a wonderful blessing he was to all of us.  This was an uplifting and celebratory occasion for we have the hope of seeing Sharon again.



Although there were tears, there were good memories to be spoken of and the time of fellowship with family was outstanding.  So many family members stepped up and made this a wonderful celebration of life for all of us.  (If family members are reading this, you know who you are and that you are appreciated.  Full video is in the works for family).


Thank you Bekah and Joni for helping with the photography.  Son John is on a business trip to Georgia and could not be at the service but he sent a memory for me to read aloud.  You can read about John’s journey to Georgia here.  He is 1600 miles into his journey since Friday.


Following is a short video clip of before and after the service.  I wanted to highlight Sharon’s youngest son, Christopher.  This young man has been simply amazing throughout this entire ordeal.  He played the piano for the entire gathering and lead us in the songs that Sharon wanted us to sing.  You will hear at first a small clip of him playing Amazing Grace and then he just played from his heart while we set up the room and people started to gather.  This is entirely extemporaneous music that was coming into his head as he played.  He is amazing and Sharon was very proud of him.  Please enjoy a few moments of Christopher at the piano.





Sharon’s husband Jim concluded our gathering with the release of purple balloons as we all waved goodbye to Sharon; wife, sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, and cherished friend.  RIP dear sister, as we who remain endeavor to live in peace.