In Memory of Sharon

Good morning everyone...today's post will not be about weight loss. My very good friend and colleague Sharon passed away yesterday. She was only 37 years old. This blog is my tribute to her.

It's fitting that I use a blog to pay tribute to Sharon, since this is what I do as part of my career, and so did she. In fact, that's how we met. We both wound up working for the same person, and he brought us together. Things did not work out for us with that particular client, but I will always be thankful that God worked through him and brought Sharon and me together.

Sharon liked what I did for that first client so much that she offered me a guest blog spot on Ballroom Dance Channel, to fill in for her while she attended the live performance show of Dancing With The Stars that week. She was invited by her boss, Tony Dovolani, to attend that night...and she wanted me to write the show recap for the BDC Wordpress blog while she was there. With as much as I love both writing and dancing, of course I said yes. My first recap blog went over well with Sharon, Sammi, and others who work for and keep up with BDC, so Sharon invited me to keep on doing them every week. She said we both catch things during the show that the other one doesn't, and it would be great for our readers to have two recaps each week.

You see, Sharon was a very generous and loving person. She did not mind sharing the spotlight, and she wanted to give me a good start so I would have some writing published for a well-known show, so I could have it on my writing resume to land other writing jobs. She had recently told me that if I ever needed a letter of recommendation to write a piece for another client, she would gladly write one for me. She also has me writing for So You Think You Can Dance now too.

We had also hit it off personally, from the very first time we spoke on the phone. We never met in person, since I'm in Cleveland and she was in San Diego, but between the internet and the phone we became almost like sisters. We loved a lot of the same things and thought the same way about a lot as well, but we were not so alike that it was boring. She was both fun and professional at the same time, and you could talk to her about anything. If she didn't agree about something she'd let you know, but in such a way that the disagreement never bothered you. She was one of the most sincere people I've ever known in my life, and I miss her terribly already.

Sharon's husband said that God must have needed someone to be his personal assistant. I can really picture that now. I'm sure she is Dancing With The Angels...and of course writing about it. Rest in peace my dear friend, you have touched my life forever and I love you always.

xoxoxo Marie