February 21, 2009

Aunt Sharon

My aunt, Sharon, went home to be with Jesus last night. With Sharon's passing, I was remembering bits of shared memories. Here's a few of them:
  • I remember her singing the tomato song with me on the swing on Grandma and Grandpa's back patio. "They liked it so much.. they liked it from the top of my head to-ma-toes"
  • I remember her giving such big bear hugs that I really was afraid of the first hug I would get from her since she literally squeezed the air out of me.
  • Sharon would always be ready to play a game with me. Jack and the Beanstalk and Hi Ho Cherry-O were a couple of the favorites when I was little.
  • She sang a lot of songs with us and read a lot of books to us.
  • I visited her in Indianapolis when I was little. I remember eating cereal with her. (She had the little trial size boxes. Very cool.) I also seem to remember her bathtub.
  • I remember meeting Uncle Gene and how happy Sharon was to find her true love.
  • It didn't snow that Christmas that we were all together. I remember Gene commenting that it was his first non-white Christmas.
  • I remember being sad when Gene died and so sad for Aunt Sharon for being widowed after only a year.
  • I was mortified when Sharon made a comment to me about me "becoming a young lady" and wondered who else knew about this!
  • There was a time when I felt too old for Aunt Sharon to carry on about me. Aunt Carol relieved Micah and I from being the "babies" when she had Serena.
  • When we played Flinch, it was dangerous to sit too close to Sharon since she really got into yelling, "FLINCH!!!".
  • Sharon always loved little children and doted on mine whenever she had the chance.
  • She was always good for a game of Scrabble.
  • Sharon gave me a set of books: Little House on the Prairie. I loved those books. (I also named almost every gerbil I ever had Laura.)
  • She was always taking the tabs off our pop cans even when we were still drinking them. She saved them for some fundraiser.
  • My boys received a post card from her when she went to Africa.
  • She was never afraid to make noise. :0)

Feel free to add your own memories about Sharon by commenting.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she'll die."

The tabs were for the Ronald McDonald House where she volunteered forever.

She was always my partner in cake-decorating crime, helping me put every cake decoration Grandma owned on our birthday cakes.

Anonymous said...

How wonderfully REFRESHING to read positive memories you have of my very eccentric sister. Or should that word just be "crazy?"

I especially laughed over the FLINCH memory because she made me jump out of my skin every time she yelled it too!

Sarah, it was my pleasure and joy to provide Serena as the substitute "lamb." Like Debbie so aptly ... Read Morelast summer, "we all outgrew Aunt Sharon, but she never outgrew us."

I'm going to try to print off these comments and any further ones to put into the "Rose of Sharon" scrapbook Serena & I are going to make.

And thanks, Elizabeth, for your lovely text message.
I just happen too old to have ever learned how to text - and besides it costs extra I think - and I AM Mabel's daughter you know!

I love you ALL!!!
Aunt Penny Pincher!

Anonymous said...

Going anywhere with Aunt Sharon was such a treat as a child, I remember it was SO cool to go to Indianapolis. We walked to the Broadripple Park and the merry-go-round was SO much fun!

Nobody could make the loud, embarrassing, noisy sounds that she could. AAHHHH!! :-)

She was so tender-hearted toward children and such a generous volunteer with ... Read Morevarious community events. I always admired how busy she was as a volunteer. Just last June, when she had her cardiac arrest, Carol and I were checking her answering machine messages and there were two of them reminding her of obligations she had that weekend.

She couldn't cook, but she DID always have the best cereal (I remember the individual serving boxes too!) and she loved to make oached eggs. Always burned the toast though!

There was only ONE "old Aunt Sharon" and she will be missed!

Love,
the FIRST niece, Debbie

Anonymous said...

One time she took my mom and I to Disneyworld, and all weekend she let me grab change that fell out of the hole in her purse. I don't even know if she really had a hole in it or if she just dropped it for me. All I know is that at 5, I thought I was rich!

We used to always make place cards for everyone when we all got together for holidays.

... Read MoreSome people need their coffee; she needed her OJ and boiled eggs every day. She loved "purple eggs" too.

She loved to take me to the Indy Children's Museum with the giant water clock thing.

Anonymous said...

On the subject of eggs; Do you all remember how fun she made decorating/coloring easter eggs? Whenever somebody though they were too 'old' to do that anymore, she would turn around and say 'well! that's more for us!'. And just for the record... I still love poached eggs! So much so, that I got a new poacher this past Christmas! I can't make them without remembering her and Grandma bickering about when they were 'done' enough!
I remember how she wanted to be first in line for me to "beautify" her every time she came to Grandma's for a visit. I always thought it was a little strange that she always called Grandma 'mommy' , but realized later on that was her term of endearment for her.
I'll never forget the one Christmas that Brian and I got to get up there to see her. She didn't have more than just a buzz cut of hair left on her head! She had shaved her haed bald in support of her dear friend who'd lost all her hair due to chemo in her battle against chemo.

Anonymous said...

I also remember that whenver I'd be sitting doing some sort of needlepoint @ Grandmas, she would always have some sort of cruell project or embroidery doo-dad of her own just for the sake of sitting down to talk about anything and everything across the common ground of crafting.
Eccenrtic and a little crazy at times, she was only doing whatever it ... Read Moretook to be your friend, confidant, as well as an awesome Aunt. I've never known anyone more compassionate, kind-hearted, and giving as she was(with the exception of Aunt Carol). I feel that her childlike demeanor is what gave her such enegy, and love for the countless childrens lives she otuched with the love of Jesus.
While I'm sad I'll never hear her upbeat voice on the telephone again, I'm sure she is elated to be singing(in key) the praises of our King of Kings,and Lord most High walking the Streets of Gold with Grandma, Grandpa, Her beloved Gene, and her fiend which she had lost to cancer.We love you Sharon Sue Roder.I envy the angels!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed these which made me laugh and cry both! When we went to Sharon's last summer, I noticed what truly wonderful friends she had. I guess I must have thought she had no friends or something! After all, she was "eccentric"! They were fantabulous! Just like you people! I love you all!