Bringing Beauty to the World (While Facing Personal Tragedy)

I, and a friend from high school who I had not seen in 40 years, reconnected three years ago. There was much to catch up on. She had married her high school sweetheart and it was one of those fairy tale marriages you don’t hear much about any more. Best friends, soul mates and devoted lovers for four decades.

What was unnerving to me, was what she had just gone through and would soon go through after our reuniting.

Her beloved younger brother (who I remembered as a teenager) had just passed and her husband had been terminally ill with liver cancer for five years. Her husband’s medical history was replete with misdiagnoses and unbearable hospital stays. At a point near death, a liver became available for transplant. As is the case with a high percentage of organ transplant patients, terrible side effects ensued. Sharon would call or email and update me on news, which was never good, but what amazed me was her strength and positive attitude even when things looked bleakest. At the time, she would often speak or write about her mother, who she was very close to as well, and who had for years been a “snowbird”, fleeing the cold of Canadian winters and living in Florida half of the year. Sharon would visit often. Two years ago, Sharon’s husband passed, then shortly after, her mother. Read more