RIP Sharon Gard/Coffee

 This earthly realm truly lost a saint today when my amazing sister Sharon exited this moral coil. She was 8 years older than me (my sister Mary Lou, also RIP, was in between) but literally could not have been more loving and supportive to me and to all of her friends and family. She taught me my first guitar chords, she taught us to sing, she taught us music (I still have her copy of Axis Bold as Love that she generously gave to me), she taught us to be better people, she taught us to believe in peace, she taught us to live for others, and so much more. Basically, whatever good that I have in me is at least partially due to Sharon (and my loving parents and the rest of my siblings, of course). She treated me as an adult way before I deserved to be and talked to me as a peer while I was still an idiot teen. She took me on trips and taught me to drive a stick shift, she introduced me to her friends, she encouraged my music (even when it wasn't necessarily the kind that she liked) and so much more. She took care of our parents when they needed help, she took in a special needs family, she raised an incredible son (who literally became a rocket scientist) after her husband tragically died young, and helped countless others. 

There are not enough words to express the good that Sharon embodied. The world is a lesser place now. I wish that I believed in an afterlife because she deserves all the good that she did not receive in this world and I wish that she could be reunited with the love of her life. Hopefully, I am wrong and she is now happy again.

Raise your glass and remember the good times - that you had with her or with your own loved ones. That is what she would have wanted.