About a year after Wayne and Cynthia Sharpe’s wedding, he encouraged Cynthia to leave her job and work with him at home. Three months later, Wayne was diagnosed with leukemia. He received chemotherapy and fought for six years. Near the end of his fight, Wayne took a call from a good friend who asked, “How will Cynthia be?” Cynthia heard him answer, “She’ll be fine. She’ll be more involved with her Church.”

Cynthia shared, “I have precious memories of him sitting next to me at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, and can often feel his presence at Mass, to this day. Wayne was there when I became a Eucharistic Minister. Now as a lector, I imagine him watching me lovingly.”  Wayne was right. Cynthia has become more involved with her parish, and she acknowledged her church family has helped her in her grief. Cynthia said, “God had a plan.”

To honor what she loves most, Cynthia worked with the Catholic Foundation to establish a legacy gift plan in her will which will create the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine Beautification Endowment Fund for her parish. Made in loving memory of Rose Turner and Wayne Sharpe, her late mother and husband, the endowment will be funded from the sale of her home. Cynthia also made a gift plan, through a beneficiary designation, in the name of her beloved sister, Marilyn Rose Frankel, who died ten years after Wayne.

Though Cynthia takes great comfort in the planning she has done for the future, she wanted to help her parish now! Cynthia used two years of her IRA’s required minimum distributions and gifted a Saint Monica statue to the Cathedral. Cynthia shared, “I love watching people light candles and offer petitions to St. Augustine’s mother – the patron of mothers, wives, widows, and difficult marriages.”

During their first Mass together at the Cathedral, Cynthia said she whispered to Wayne, “This feels like home.” He agreed and it became their parish.  “I believe Wayne would approve of my plans.”