Sharon Lee - Sentimental Sunday No. 7

Sharon Lee was my parent’s first daughter. She was only 14 when she passed away. I can only imagine the pain my parents felt at the loss of their daughter after a twenty-seven month illness. Unfortunately I never met Sherry. She died in 1958 – I wasn’t born until 1959. But, I feel as though I know her – from the stories that I heard over the years, and I’ve always felt her presence in my life.

She had curly brown hair and a smile that would light up a room. She loved books, and drawing, and horses. She had a great laugh, and was a wonderful ice skater. She loved Mom and Dad, and Grandma Maurine. She adored animals of all kinds. I think she would have been a wonderful big sister to me.

When I was a baby, I had very bad colic. Pretty much nothing would calm me and I would cry and scream for hours. I know, being that JJ had colic as a baby, that as a parent you get so worked up because you can’t calm your precious baby. One day, my Mom was so exasperated that she finally just put me down on the couch and had to go stand in another room for a few minutes to compose herself. Above our living room sofa was a portrait of Sharon Lee. The minute my Mom placed me on the sofa right below the portrait, I started calming down and stopped crying. I was right below the portrait looking up at Sherry. Now you could say that it was a coincidence, or that the mere act of placing me down on my back calmed me. But over several weeks they tried putting me in different areas of the house and the only place that I calmed down was right below that portrait!

When I was about four years old, I would come into the house from playing in the backyard. Mom and Dad would ask me what I had been doing. I would reply, “Playing with Sister Sherry.” (I don’t remember this – but my Dad retold this story to me several times in later years.) My parents were surprised by this response, so they asked me what we were playing. I would retell stories that “Sister Sherry” had told me. My Dad said they were stories that I could in no way know anything about. They believed, as do I, that she was there – and she was telling me these things. This happened on more than one occasion.

I have a birthmark under my left arm. When I was little it looked like a large cluster of grapes. As my parents drove home from the adoption agency, carrying their precious cargo, my Mom noticed the birthmark. Sharon Lee had one that looked almost identical in exactly the same place.

I believe in Angels. I believe in Guardian Angels. I’ve felt for my entire life that Sharon Lee was my Guardian Angel. I believe that she helped to bring my little soul to my Mom and Dad to ease their pain and help them go on living. I have always believed that although I wasn’t born to John and Sylvia Porter that I was MEANT to be their daughter, and I have a sister named Sherry.