Cheryl Joyce Young

I love the picture you chose to post here. It truly captures Cheryl's love of life and curiosity! I was blessed to know Cheryl and share friendship with her over the last 24 years! She was always curious, inquisitive, creative, innovative - wondering how she could make a difference in the lives of others. We enjoyed frequent conversations over the years, especially the last several years as there was distance between us. However that physical distance only served to deepen our communicative connection. Her love of people and people's stories has always inspired me - and she told me many times that I needed to write my story - I will, Cheryl. I will. And as I do, your love and encouragement will be in my ear (I can hear you now!). To Cheryl's family: thank you for caring for and loving her so beautifully these last 8 months in Madison. She was so happy! And for that, I am grateful. I trust you will all find comfort in knowing that she was (and is, no doubt) happy! Love, Jane Newell

Aunt Cheryl's favorite moments were those spent with family!

Bennington County Habitat for Humanity is saddened to learn of Cheryl's passing. She was a committed advocate of affordable housing while in Vermont and helped empower families by partnering with them through our Habitat affiliate's home ownership program. We have missed her since she left our community and are grateful to her, always, for her compassion toward those in need. Peace and Blessings.

Cheryl and I hit it off right away with our mutual interests in helping empower others, sharing our experiences with international travel and international connections, discussing child led education for building keen inquisitive minds and self assured adults, and just plain interest in the world and life at large when we first met at the Resale store in Manchester VT where I volunteered and she had taken over from Norma Will as manager. When Cheryl suddenly had to move out of her Dorset VT apartment in short order because the place was being sold, she felt overwhelmed. I spent about three weeks categorizing all her belongings, going through them with her, so she could decide category by category what to distribute, recycle, or keep and pack, and what had to be shipped or could be packed in her little car for the trip . It was an intensive time and we laughed a lot despite the stress of the time crunch. Her brother came and I think was surprised at how much he actually could take with him when I puzzled the boxes and paintings just so in his car (indeed thank you for that!). Her dear friend, Jane Newell, came out so she could help drive the long trip out to the midwest (many blessings on you taking that journey with Cheryl!). From then on we kept very close contact by phone, speaking many times a week over the first year. I knew which box contained what and where things might be that she was looking for. It was a big move and she did not want to burden anyone, but also very much wanted and needed a strong support network and reached out for it, at least by phone when local connections were unavailable. I admire how much she reached out and worked to keep in touch, genuinely connecting with each person. She had much to say of her life, her travels, her experiences, her interests, her thoughts, and her concerns. She listened fully with an active open heart felt intelligence and one knew one was truly being heard and cared about, and more. She encouraged, applauded what we might not notice we had accomplished and gave such an empowering perspective that made one feel worthwhile. I never considered before that my joy at helping people organize their belongings could be valuable as a possible career... and it made a big difference in my feeling of self worth. When I went to Basel Switzerland for two months to be with my very ill brother last year, Cheryl talked very often with my daughter, Raven, and became a rare connection for her, a combination of cheer leader, friend, confidant, and mentor to her. We miss Cheryl deeply and cannot quite fathom that she is gone, it is a grievous loss for us, and an immense blessing that she touched our lives so deeply. Cheryl and I connected around her health and was open to learning about and sometimes implementing my eclectic holistic suggestions. I am grateful she already had homeopathic Arnica 30c with her, for when she called me once while in the twin cities, she was definitely confused and it was clear to me she was in the midst of a mini stroke. I had her take a pellet of the arnica (homeopathic Arnica reduces swelling bleeding bruising and shock and is therefor a wonderful immediate first aid to give for concussions and stroke), give me her doctor’s phone number so I could three way them in because they knew where she lived and were able best to direct the EMT squad to her apartment. She was calm and grateful and we all stayed on the phone together until the rescue squad arrived and took her to the hospital. I was so grateful that she called me, that she followed my instructions, and that we could intervene so quickly, because any damage was mitigated to almost nothing, and she was back on her feet very soon making plans for how to better the world for everyone! As a healer, I so appreciate feedback as to how my interventions and suggestions have been handled and what their results have been, and Cheryl was wonderfully responsive and open to letting me know. If I had realized this last Saturday evening when we spoke for over an hour, that the next morning was going to be deadly trouble for her, I would have had her take a dose of the Arnica and gotten her further help again. I have to trust, as Jane has assured me, that it must have been her time to go, that she went quickly, was at last surrounded by her loving family and all her needs were taken care, was so amazed that she had more money than she knew how to spend (after struggling with making ends meet these last few years), could buy local organic food that she and believed in and enjoyed, was making connections in her new community, and was happy, really happy for so much of the time. I include here what I wrote on face book right after Karin told me of her passing on Sunday morning: “These spring flowers are like Cheryl Young... Bright and cheerful on any type of day... sunny, rainy, stormy, gloomy, warm, cold... encouraging us to come out of our winter shells and shine our beautiful light. Dear God please take care of my dear friend, Cheryl, who died this Mother’s day, Sunday morning. Cheryl touched my life deeply. Cheryl was a very special person to me, to the world, and I will miss her encouraging words, her laughter, her interesting stories and thoughts. I will miss our many weekly phone calls, Cheryl. You shared so much of your thoughts, ideas, and plans which were always about helping people share their stories, making a better world, improving the education system with bringing out children’s strengths. You were always interested in what I thought and what was going on for me as well. You made a bright light in my life. I am so glad we had so much time to laugh together. I felt so wonderful from your praise and appreciation of my helping you pack up those intense three weeks when you were moving away from Vermont to move back to the midwest. You took much of my eclectic advice seriously and tried some of it out, finding what worked for you. Open minded, that was an aspect your being I loved and respected. Open hearted, you shared your life so fully with me, so excited or frustrated, surprised, pleased, interested, curious, angered by injustice, bored only occasionally, always making plans, sometimes afraid and down for a little while when things just felt overwhelming, but always courageously moving forward to new beginnings, and uniquely you in taking time to deeply listen to me or my daughter. You somehow made us each feel we were such very special people with wonderful valuable talents that the world was a better place because of us. You made us see ourselves differently, with real grounded inspiration for what we could do! Thank you for reaching out to call me all those times, whether for my help or just to share our lives, keeping our friendship strong and growing better every call. I didn’t yet tell you that when I move to Germany in a couple of years, I am thinking of writing stories, notes of my life and thoughts, maybe snippets for all ages, maybe get my daughters to illustrate what I write, maybe include some songs and thoughts of my sons... You are in my heart! There is so much more to say. Please share your stories about Cheryl... she would have been so pleased and surprised at all you have to say.” .... in loving fondness and appreciation of my dear dear friend, Cheryl JOYce Young, Louise Gogel from Manchester, Vermont