PORTLAND – R. Sharon (Medina) Galgay died on March 6, 2024 with her husband holding her hand while she peacefully took her last breath after a long, brave battle of almost 40 years suffering from the numerous tortures of chronic progressive multiple sclerosis, leaving all who had the pleasure of meeting her, whether for a moment or a lifetime, inconsolable with grief and sadness.

Sharon was born in Las Cruces, N.M. on April 27, 1961, the youngest of six children and attended parochial and public schools in Las Cruces, N.M. and graduated from Mayfield High School in 1979.

Sharon had a very creative mind and while in high school created and sewed her own designed dresses under the label “La Morenita Designs by Rose Sharon” and presented her designs in competition and fashion shows.

She attended New Mexico State University where she met her future husband (the luckiest man ever) and was married on April 11, 1981. Although that ended her university studies, she went to work as a bartender in Las Cruces and in Old Mesilla, N.M., retail sales at Puritan Clothing in Hyannis (Cape Cod), bartender at the South Royalton House in Vermont from 1984 until 1987, and at E.C. Jordan Company (ABB) in Portland from 1987 through 1995, when she finally ended her working career and went on long-term disability.

Sharon’s chronic MS continued to take its heavy toll and she spent most of the last 24-plus years in a nursing home making life-long friends while spreading her joy, beauty and happiness in the face of all odds with fellow residents, visitors to residents, nurses, CNAs, housekeepers, laundry personnel, maintenance workers, social workers, hospice workers and volunteers, and even a few of the medical doctors.

When Sharon arrived in New England, she became a true Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics fan and never got over the 1986 world series; she loved old movies and great books; swimming in the ocean on Cape Cod; Saturday haddock dinners at DiMillo’s; and visiting with family and friends.

Sharon was preceded in death by her parents, Roberto and Mary Louise Medina.

Sharon is survived by her husband, David; her sisters Carol Medina Maze (and her husband Richard), Agatha Rodriguez, Catherine Medina Salcido (and her husband Felipe), brothers Mark Medina, Peter Medina (and his wife Karen). Sharon is also survived by her in-laws Marybeth Haynes (and her husband, Robert) Christopher Galgay and his partner, Phyllis; Brian Galway, Joseph Galgay (and his wife Julie Thompson), John Galgay (and his wife Andrea), and Patrick Galgay (and his wife Aline); and by numerous nieces, nephews; great-nieces and great-nephews; and some great friends such as Suzanne, Jenice, Emily, Irene, Cecilia, Beatrice, David H. and Rachelle and hundreds more.

When cleaning out Sharon’s room at the nursing home on the weekend after she died, her husband found an envelope with photos of her family and friends and an old poem by Henry Holland about death with a few lines highlighted as follows:

“Death is nothing at all … I am I, and you are you, … whatever we were to each other, that we still are, … and why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight … all is well.”

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