A stunning beauty nearly six feet tall in her stocking feet, Sharon caught your attention even before you were swept into her energy field. She was someone you wanted to be around, especially to laugh with because she had the most joyful, head-tossed-back laugh.
Sharon wasn't one to hold back, channelling her talents into a successful 30-year career as a marketing and communications executive in Victoria, Vancouver and Edmonton, becoming a staunch supporter of her adopted community of Penticton, B.C., and a passionate advocate for the arts.
A former model, Sharon loved the theatre. She was a cast member, producer and incoming chair of the Penticton Chamber Theatre and a founding member of the Many Hats Theatre Company. She was studying the script for her upcoming role as Dorine in Molière's Tartuffe while on holiday and she was looking forward to playing Sister Aloysius in Doubt this summer.
But Sharon's greatest joy was her family. She inspired her children, stepchildren and grandchildren to live their lives with joy and laughter. She was best friend, cheerleader and champion to daughters Jana and Andrea Hill, rolled up her shirt sleeves to help spruce up their Penticton shops, joined them for movie marathons and road trips and loved to crank up the tunes and dance.
In 1982, while a senior executive with Palmer Jarvis Advertising in Vancouver, Sharon met the love of her life, Ben Amos. A few years later Sharon was appointed manager of the agency's operation in Edmonton where Ben lived. From the time of their marriage in 1991, they shared a vision of their future, which, in 1998, included retirement in Penticton. They transformed a farm on the Naramata Bench into a vineyard named Blenheim Hill. The area was where Sharon felt most at home and she fought to protect it, galvanizing the community to preserve Okanagan Lake Park from commercial development.
In 2008, Sharon chaired Penticton's Centennial Advisory Committee, spearheading an event-packed year and never missing an opportunity to dress up in full period costume.
Sharon's dedication to the arts, from drama and jazz festivals to city revitalization projects, will continue in the legacy arts fund established in her name by the Rotary Club of Penticton, and her indomitable spirit will live on in all those whose lives she touched.
Sharon always said, "As we grow older we should be doing more things for the first time than the last time." It should inspire us all.
Mary Lou Gazeley is Sharon's friend and Ben Amos is Sharon's husband.