Keizertimes., March 20, 2020, Page 6, Image 6

PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 20, 2020
SHARON,
continued from Page A1
“There was trauma there for
her for sure. She had a hard life
of people being mean because
of her preferences,” Melanie
sister and a younger sister, Mel- said. “I think she really found
anie Stauffer, and brother yet to her peace being in nature.”
The Pritchards’ father even-
come.
Sharon had a rough-and- tually left the family, but Mela-
tumble relationship with Mel- nie said it bonded Sharon more
anie as a child, but it didn’t stop closely to their mother.
“She would always tell us to
Melanie from idolizing Sharon.
“There were times I would do it the right way – raise our
have to go run and hide from children the way our mom had
her until my mom came home, raised us,” Melanie said.
Despite the strong relation-
but I loved her so much,” Mel-
anie said. “She was a tomboy ship with her mom, Sharon
overwhelming-
and
prided
ly wanted to
herself on be-
get away from
ing tough.”
her home and
Sharon bal-
the peers she
anced episodes
had to face on
of sibling rival-
a daily basis.
ry with other
She joined Job
moments
in
Corps to be-
which she did
gin vocation
her best to pass
training as a
along her pas-
chef and met
sions to Mela-
Rachel at the
nie.
training site in
“She would
Reno, Nev.
sit outside with
“Sharon
me at night
was working
and we would
on vocational
look up at the
training while
stars together
and she would
— Melanie Stauffer I was working
on getting my
tell me about
GED,” Rachel
nature and the
said.
universe,” Mel-
The two became fast friends,
anie said. “She would collect
lizards in the neighborhood but it proved to be only a pit
stop for Sharon. She joined the
and take care of them.”
Even as a youngster, Sharon Army after Job Corps.
On leave between boot
was “committed” to cycling,
but also enjoyed activities such camp in Texas and being sent to
as trap shooting and hiking. Saudia Arabia to participate in
Her preferred style was jeans Operation Desert Storm, Sha-
and a T-shirt. She kept her hair ron confi ded in Melanie that
cut short. In one picture from she was lesbian. Sharon and
the teenage years, she appears Rachel’s friendship had devel-
to have borrowed the style of oped into more.
Sharon was sent to Saudia
every boy in Tiger Beat mag-
azines of that era, right down Arabia as support personnel to
to sunglasses hanging from a soldiers on the front line. She
beaded necklace. Unfortunate- would prepare meals as a sous
ly, her boyish interests didn’t go chef and deliver rations to the
over well with peers. Teasing front line.
“What really affected her
and bullying in school led to
was driving through the war
becoming more of a loner.
“She amazed
me because
I would
be going
through
diffi cult things
and she
always had so
much faith.”
zone and seeing bodies in the
streets,” Rachel said.
The trauma of what she
saw in the Middle East dam-
aged her psyche badly and lin-
gered long after an honorable
discharge in 1993. Sharon and
Rachel picked up where they
left and stayed together for the
next fi ve years in Reno.
“[What she saw in the Mid-
dle East] affected her drinking,
she became more paranoid and
she had extreme nightmares,”
Rachel said. “Sometimes we
would have to go sit in the
closet together for her to get
over it.”
Sharon returned to other fa-
miliar comforts besides the bot-
tle. Between her return from
the service and her death, two
well-loved iguanas – Godzilla,
then Free – got to call her a
companion. Sharon preferred
communicating by letters be-
cause she perceived phones as
a danger to her well-being. She
often signed the iguanas’ names
alongside hers.
“She would always tell me
things like Free’s tail could snap
the legs of a cat or dog and stuff
like that. Like she was always so
proud of her lizard and he was
her best friend,” Melanie said.
Sharon worked in hotels as
a sous chef around Reno for
a living, and kept her spirits
up by competing in triathlons
and hiking with her leathery
companions along the Truckee
River.
Melanie couldn’t have
imagined a better career match
for her sister.
“It was like something that
just came very naturally to her
and she was very big into nu-
trition and vitamins. Even as
she dealt with alcoholism, she
took vitamins and ate healthy,”
Melanie said.
Rachel and Sharon split up
when Rachel left to take care
of her ailing mother, but they
remained friends and in con-
tact as much as Sharon’s para-
noia would allow.
Sharon with former partner Rachel Chavarria.
Submitted
is your pet
the cutest?
how about
the funniest?
then enter the
Pets We Love photo contest
The Keizertimes in partnership
with Capitol Auto Group,
will publish this special section in April,
filled with photos of Keizer's pets.
1st, 2nd and 3rd place honors will be awarded for cutest pet photo and funniest pet photo.
— H O W TO S U B M I T —
Email: kt@keizertimes.com Mail or Deliver: 142 Chemawa Rd N, Keizer, OR 97303
deadline is march 31
Sharon in her teenage years.
“I always told her that she
could come and live with me
if the choice was between that
and homelessness. I left other
relationships to go and be with
her when she was struggling,”
Rachel said. “She was just al-
ways my priority.”
Sharon stayed in Reno and
had some run-ins with home-
lessness, but the death of her
mother in 2011 sent her spi-
raling.
“The alcoholism had really
started to escalate by that time
and she just fell apart,” Melanie
said.
Sharon became chronically
homeless soon after. She even-
tually left Reno for Washing-
ton state and both Melanie and
Rachel had to live through ex-
tended periods of radio silence
from that point on.
In one undated letter to
Melanie, Sharon doesn’t dwell
on her own experiences, she
offers fi nancial advice: “One of
my favorite phrases is ‘a penny
saved is a penny earned.’ It still
holds true to this day.”
Sharon included a silver
coin with the letter, and con-
tinued, “It is 90% silver. It is
used as a bargaining chip. Say
this coin is all you have left, you
could go into a convenience
store and trade it for a quart of
milk, cheap loaf of bread and a
can of beans.”
The letter is signed, “I love
you with all my heart and soul,
Sharon & Free.”
Melanie lost track of Sharon
after their mother’s death aside
from the occasional letters.
“I tried hard to fi nd her, but
I didn’t hear from her again un-
til April 2017 when her partner
died,” Melanie said.
Melanie fl ew to Seattle to
pick Sharon up and take her
back to California. Sharon
seemed ready to give treatment
at the Veteran’s Administration
clinic in Menlo Park a try, but
it didn’t stick.
At one point, she was giv-
en a prescription for klonopin
while trying to kick the bottle.
The combination of the two
can cause memory loss, loss of
coordination and cause irregu-
lar breathing and heart rates.
For Melanie, a licensed ther-
apist, it calls into question the
types of screening the military
does before accepting new re-
cruits.
“We know that trauma
compounds on older trauma
and Sharon had a lot of that by
the time she enlisted. She en-
listed to escape that and came
out the other end worse than
when she started,” Melanie
said.
Sharon ended up back in
Reno, then headed toward Or-
egon where Melanie thinks she
spent some time at a women’s
shelter in Ashland before set-
tling in the Salem-Keizer area.
Court records show Sharon
had no run-ins with the law
during her time here, but sev-
eral Keizer police knew who
she was and were aware of her
Submitted
think they’re the worst person.
movement around the area.
Sharon left behind a stack of And then if you just take the
pictures she had been carrying opportunity to get to know
around for years when she left somebody, you can see they
are people struggling and they
Melanie’s circle of care.
“One was my mom, one have big hearts.”
After her death, Virgil T.
was of Free, there was one of
the two of us. She would always Golden Funeral Chapel cre-
mated Sharon’s
carry around
body. Melanie
pictures
and
received
the
little mementos
ashes a few days
of people that
before being
mattered
to
i n t e r v i ewe d
her,” Melanie
for this sto-
said.
ry. She has a
Melanie
plan for what
said the world
comes
next,
might
have
even if there
learned a lot
isn’t a date set
from her big
in stone.
sister if they
“Sharon
could
have
would
nev-
found a way to
er want to be
listen.
buried.
She
“Humility
would always
and kindness
talk about how,
and, no matter
— Melanie Stauffer if she died, she
what she was
just wanted to
going through,
have her ashes
she always had
a positive attitude. She always spread in nature,” Melanie said.
knew that God loved her,” “When we were kids, she had
Melanie said. “She amazed me a praying mantis and it passed
because she would be going away. She took me up into the
through diffi cult things and she hills behind our house and she
buried it and read from the
always had so much faith.”
I think she would also say Bible and gave it a little cere-
not to judge a book by its cov- mony. I’ll do something similar
er. Because you can look at for her in the mountains some-
someone who is homeless and where.”
“We know
that trauma
compounds
on older
trauma and
Sharon had a
lot of that by
the time she
enlisted.”
maze
Maze by Jonathan Graf of Keizer
sudoku
Enter digits
from 1-9 into
the blank
spaces. Every
row must
contain one
of each digit.
So must every
column, as
must every
3x3 square.