REMEMBERING SHARON PART 3

It's hard to believe it's already been a month since mom passed away. In some ways it feels like longer and in many other ways I feel like she is still here with us. I guess she is. I had the privilege of being one of the speakers at my mom's funeral and sharing with her family and friends my thoughts, memories, and lessons learned from this wonderful and special woman. Mom and I were the best of friends. And while it is difficult for me to know that I can't have her physical presence with me any longer I'm so grateful for the knowledge that in some ways I can have my friend still with me all the time. The first song we picked for her slideshow was "Angels Among Us". We picked this because mom LOVED this song. When I was younger and this song first came out she recorded it over and over on a tape that she would blast throughout the house every morning for hours on end. Classic Sharon. And now I wonder, how did she know? How did she know how fitting this song would be and how much the words would come to mean to all of us later? She was an angel throughout her life and continues to be one now- helping each one of us as we "move forward with faith". 
Here is my talk from the funeral-

My Mom

How do you capture the essence of someone in 5-10 minutes who was truly larger than life? The biggest challenge with this talk was not on deciding WHAT to say, but editing it down to what not to say. And for those of you who knew Sharon, you know that she wasn’t big on editing. I’ve never known someone so comfortable in their own skin. She was 100% herself 100% of the time. “Inside voice” was not a term she was familiar with.
If I could pick a phrase to summarize my mom it would be “Go BIG or go home”. Sharon did nothing on the small scale. She didn’t send out a Christmas card to close friends once in awhile, she handmade intricate carefully crafted Valentines each and every year to be sent to an ever growing list of over 250 families. She never just showed up to teach a class or give a talk, she spent hours planning, cutting, gluing, and coloring hundreds of handouts to help drive her message home. If she found a shirt she liked, she bought it in every color. If she was the primary chorister on Halloween, she dressed up as Count Dracula and had the children pick a song from numbered pockets sewn inside her black cape. Every holiday, mom dyed the milk a coordinating color- green milk on St. Patrick’s Day, red milk at Christmas, and black milk on Halloween. And words cannot describe the spectacle that was Christmas decorating in the Hendrickson home. Huge swaths of gold lame hung from the ceiling with glass stars hanging between a hundred bears wearing angel costumes that she hand sewed. Mom never giggled or smiled. She roared, cackled, and beamed. And most of all, mom didn’t just dabble in the gospel, she immersed herself in it. She poured over the scriptures, spent hours in a quiet dark place praying to her Heavenly Father, and knew beyond doubt that Jesus was her savior, brother, and friend.
The prophet Joseph Smith once said “men know rightly the characteristics of God…if we don’t understand him, we don’t understand ourselves.” I believe the reason my mom was so confident and comfortable, was because of how well she knew her Heavenly Father.
Sharon’s testimony was unshakeable. It was a testimony bought at the high price of trial, hardship, and tribulation. But to know her, you would never know that. Because she was always smiling, always laughing, and always filled with joy. She understood that the world had much to offer in the way of easy thrills and chills, but true and everlasting joy came only from living the gospel. And in true mom fashion, she didn’t just live it, she embraced and embodied it.
Everyone loved to be around mom because of this joy that radiated from her. She was fun, vivacious, full of life, and maybe just a little bit crazy. Mom’s greatest joy was in her family and she wanted nothing more than for them to be together. She often talked seriously about her plans for “The Hendrickson Compound”. But even bigger than this was her dream to have a Circus Family. To her, this would be the ultimate. To travel around as a family from town to town working together, playing together, and making people laugh together.
Mom had a saying for everything and most of them described just how she was. Some of my favorites are “Only boring people get bored”, “Be unbugable”, “NOYB”, and of course “Hendrickson’s Never Say Can’t”. Most of these were sayings were also accompanied by a little song and dance. But the phrase she would often say that had the biggest impact on me was “Bad things DON”T happen to Good people”. I learned from mom that hard things happen to good people, difficult things happen to good people, heart-breaking and devastating trials happen to good people, but when are heart is in the right place and we turn our lives over to the Lord, bad things will not happen. For he has promised that when we do what he says, ALL things will work for our GOOD. Mom knew this and mom lived this.
She never asked why. Why is this so difficult, why did I have this child, why have I been given cancer? She only asked what. What would you have me do Lord and what can I learn? Many of you may know that for over 20 years she has been writing a book about her life and experiences with her family and most of all her youngest son, Ricky. Her philosophy for life is best described in the title of this book: “From Trapped to Freedom- Your Choice”. Mom made no excuses. She made no apologies. You never found her complaining or murmering. She just did. Her knee-jerk reaction was to say “yes” and figure out a way to do it later. She knew she had a choice. She knew she was the author of her destiny. And the tale she chose to tell was one of perseverence, sacrifice, service and overwhelming joy.
While mom lived large, she also appreciated the small. She saw the beauty and worth in everyone. When she was younger she used to go around to construction sites near her home and hammer out the knots in the wood. These knots she would take home and carefully sand, buff and then paint with clear nail polish to bring out their individuality in design and texture. Nothing was more beautiful to her than this collection of knots. One day she brought them to school for show and tell. When her teacher saw her collection he laughed at her. He told her that it was a ridiculous and stupid collection. While most children’s response would be embarrassment and hurt, mom felt nothing but sadness. Sadness for this man that he could not see the beauty in these simple unique knots of wood.
Mom had a knack for making everyone she came in contact with feel special and beautiful. She saw and loved the individuality in each of us and through her teachings, example and love, helped sand us, polish us, and make us shine. She saw the worth in us that we often didn’t see in our selves. “For men know rightly the characteristics of God…if we don’t understand him, we don’t understand ourselves.” Mom could see the beauty and worth in us because she knew herself and she knew her God. She lived life big and has now returned to her Heavenly Father. And you know exactly what she would say… “There’s no place like home.”