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Profile: Sharon Randall

Profile of Sharon Randall A local bringer of laughter and peace By Alison R.G. van Diggelen September, 2002 I was looking for a much older person. Sharon Randall surprises you with her sparkling eyes, a mane of blond hair and the energy and vitality of someone ten years younger. We met on a too-hot day this summer, in Willow Glen. Her handshake gripped me, literally and figuratively, for a long time. Mother of three, Randall writes a column for the Monterey Herald that is syndicated nationwide and has an estimated readership of over 6 million. Yet she shows no arrogance or sharp edges. There’s not even hint of bitterness in her voice when we discuss the challenges in her life, past and present. When Randall’s husband died she says, “we got a lot of grace poured on us.” She’s referring to all the support she received from family, friends and even strangers. Readers of her column sent letters; those who felt that her stories were their stories too. She visited some of them on her recent book tour from Boston and New York to some forty smaller towns like Quincy, Mass. and Grand Island, Nebraska. Complete strangers treated her like a long lost relative. “We prayed for you,” many said. “Our kids prayed for your kids.” It’s enough to make any mother get teary eyed. In her column, she described with honest clarity what it was like to be at the side of her husband as he fought cancer. One of her favorite columns describes going for a walk in the fog with her husband shortly before he died. Many people across America felt a deep connection. Randall says her husband’s death brought the family closer. She has three children, Josh, 30, the TV doctor on NBC’s “Ed”; daughter, Joanna, 27, a San Jose State grad and Nate, 25, a student at Monterey Peninsula College. Sharon is motherly in the best sense, and shows genuine warmth. She throws her head back to laugh with the gusto of someone without a care in the world. As she talks about her life, her work and her faith she seems as strong as mother earth, yet her face gives away a gentle fragility. Tears well up in her eyes when she talks about bad things happening. And she’s an expert at coping with bad things happening, an expert at finding the good within and beyond the bad. Randall says, “Whenever something horrible happens a greater or equal outpouring of grace occurs.” She’s talking about God and humanity. She believes hard times can make us better people, allowing us to strip away the trivial and see what is truly important. She’s referring to personal and public tragedy. In a recent column she wrote: “We’re always looking for the big picture, but life is best seen in the details, in the drop of rain that holds an ocean, the King Kong grip of a newborn’s hand, the light in the eyes that says I love you, the news you read on a surgeon’s face.” A family matter is high on Sharon’s mind. It’s a complicated issue, beyond her reach. She writes in her next column, “When a child is in trouble…there’s not much a mother can do except the hard things-pray and trust and wait.” And be comforted by messages (and cookies) from friends and strangers. Randall has learned that the flip side of sharing the intimate details of your life with the world is that you sometimes feel vulnerable. “It can feel a little too naked.” Randall says, “Sometimes it’s nice to be recognized. Other times I’d rather be invisible.” As we prepare to part, the heat on Lincoln Avenue is oppressive. Randall repeats her mantra, “Good things always come from bad things.” “I hope things will work out for your family, ” I say. “They will, I know they will,” Randall says, a half-smile playing on her lips, her eyes moist again. We hug, one wise, worldly mother, the other just a rookie. As I turn to leave, an aura of gentle calm spreads through me, enduring like Randall’s handshake, her hug. Maybe it’s something to do with knowing that all these millions of people in places like Quincy, Mass., and Grand Island, Nebraska are praying for you. Maybe then you can’t help feeling assured that things will work out for the best. Sharon Randall’s book, “Birdbaths and Paper Cranes” a special collection of her columns since 1991, was published last fall and will be released in paperback this month by Penguin Putnam. Her column appears Fridays in the San Jose Mercury News. © siliconmom Alison van Diggelen is the editor of siliconmom.com, a forum for mothers in the high-tech world.

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