Sharon Lee Taylor, aged 70, residing in Hoquiam, Washington, passed away Oct. 24, 2022, with her family and friends by her side after a vigorous seven month fight with cancer.
Sharon was born March 19, 1952, to Harold and Ruth Currie in Everett, Massachusetts. She was the middle child between her two brothers, Bruce and Steve. The family moved to Ridley Park, Pennsylvania in 1961.
During her high school years, Sharon was a competitive swimmer, winning countless medals and trophies. After graduating from Ridley Park High School, she would marry Dean Franklin Isaacs, with whom she would have two children, Nathan and Kimberly.
She divorced Dean in 1978. As a single mother, Sharon would waitress at Denny’s while going back to school and earning her degree in nursing, a career in which she would then dedicate the rest of her life. She would eventually relocate her family to Seattle where she would work at Harborview Medical Center.
In 1985, she and the family moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to be with her retired father as he battled terminal cancer. Sharon returned to Seattle and Harborview in 1990, and married Jack Taylor in November of that year. She and Jack divorced in 1994, and she enjoyed a vibrant life with friends and activities in Seattle until she became a traveling nurse in 1999. Wherever she went, she welcomed friends to visit and give tours.
In 2010, Sharon joined the staff at Grays Harbor Community Hospital where she became an integral member of the hospital and the community. In 2014, working with her brothers and son, Nathan, she took the lead on her mother’s care as she struggled with Alzheimer’s. Settling her into the memory care unit at Grays Harbor Health & Rehab in Aberdeen, Sharon would often finish a shift at the hospital and walk over to visit her mother.
An active and eternal student, she studied how to tell fortunes and read tarot cards, learned crafts such as making felt hats and homemade paper, and took on DIY projects around the house and garden. And she was widely known by girls and boys (of all ages) for her dollhouses, which she would build, decorate and then give away.
A natural athlete beyond swimming, she enjoyed sailing her San Juan 28, Myne; riding her road bike throughout the Pacific Northwest with her friends and family; and hiking in the Olympics and Cascades, including the annual New Year’s Day hike with friends and family. Her son Nathan, during his early teens, would run alongside her in 10k races around Seattle, mostly to enjoy going out to breakfast with her afterward. Later, she would write to him in the Navy to report she had biked around Lake Washington or from Seattle to Portland in one day. “Yeah sure, Mom,” he would think. Then, upon leaving the service and returning to Washington, his mother dropped him on a 25-mile bike ride in the Snoqualmie Valley.
She also loved gardening and was often in a losing, one-sided war with neighboring deer that enjoyed the fruit of her labors.
She relished annual traditions with friends: birding trips with girlfriends, snowshoeing at the Sleeping Lady in Leavenworth, and wine tasting with friends each Memorial weekend. She also looked forward to her frequent trips and adventures around the United States and Europe over the years, whether with her daughter Kim, her friends Sharon Ackerlund and Kathy Tonda, or her mother Ruth Currie and mother-in-law Marian Knudson.
Sharon enjoyed a good party and a glass of white wine. For years, she and Kathy oversaw gingerbread painting parties around Christmas. She was known for decorating the Grays Harbor Community Hospital with Christmas trees and delivering little gifts to the staff, as well as other holiday decorations and treats throughout the year.
Sharon loved being a grandmother and great-grandmother. She taught her grandchildren to swim, took them on their annual school shopping sprees, snuck them over to McDonald’s or video game parlors and, generally, spoiled them whenever she had the chance. She was proud of her grandson Jordan and his pursuit of being a doctor. She was traveling buddies with her third grandchild, Maxwell. And she fostered a love for the arts for all, most recently with her grandchildren Amir and Aniyah with subscriptions to Oregon Children’s Theatre or attending the annual Gospel Christmas performances in Portland.
She believed in service to her adopted communities, whether serving on the Grays Harbor Community Hospital Foundation, volunteering for the Democratic Party or collecting donations for various nonprofits.
She never lacked an opinion on a subject or an idea of how to do something better. And much of the time, she was right. She encouraged and supported her nurses, children, grandchildren and friends to achieve big goals and seek new experiences. She lived in the present and looked forward to whatever tomorrow might bring. She freely gave her time, money and energy to any friend that needed it, regardless of the hour, difficulty or inconvenience. That is just what you did for a friend or loved one, she would say if you asked.
Early in her cancer fight, she was near death twice and beat it back both times. And she was still planning on going back to work just weeks before the final turn.
That was who she was in the end: a tough, loyal, smart, beautiful and loving friend, colleague, mentor, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. We all will miss her dearly.
Sharon is survived by her son Nathan Isaacs (Dawn), Portland, Oregon; her daughter Kimberly Archer, Marietta, Georgia; her grandchildren: Jordan Moseley, Columbia, South Carolina, Madeleine Moseley, Dallas, Texas, Maxwell Wimbiscus, Marietta, Georgia, Amir Isaacs, Portland, Oregon, and Aniyah Isaacs, Portland, Oregon; her great-granddaughter Zerayah Banks, Atlanta, Georgia; her mother, Ruth Currie of Aberdeen, Washington; and her brothers, Bruce Currie (Sally), Shelby, North Carolina and Steven Currie (Pattie), Greer, South Carolina. She is preceded in death by her father Harold, and her dear friend Kathy.
A memorial service will be held at Amazing Grace Lutheran Church of Grays Harbor at 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12. Remembrances may be made to Grays Harbor Community Hospital Foundation.
