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Sharon Akiko Hayashida (75) passed away on December 10, 2022, while in hospice care at the Arcadia nursing facility after battling multiple health conditions for over a decade. Her family grieves her passing, but we are grateful for her indelible legacy. While not one to bask in the limelight, her life story was about the love of family - immediate and extended, sacrifice and support for the next generation, and gratitude for generations past. While the family was paramount, Sharon's life reflects her genuinely kind, compassionate, and sympathetic ways, creating deep and enduring friendships in Hawaii, the East Coast, West Coast, and Japan. Sharon received her 2-year graduate social work training first from the University of Hawaii and then from the University of Washington (Seattle) with a full national scholarship from NIMH. However, most of her early career involved teaching English as a 2nd language in Japan, Washington State, Oregon, and Ohio at community colleges and technical schools. Teaching provided an interim career path as she supported her husband, Cullen, in his budding research and teaching career, given their frequent relocations. Then, the family returned to Hawaii as she focused on ensuring the best environment to raise young Tamra. In Hawaii, her career shifted towards social services helping pregnant teens, and eventually towards real estate, using her counseling skills while teaching responsibility and stressing integrity over profit. Finally, after 30+ years in real estate, she retired to help raise her grandsons Braedon and Caleb, which she considered the best job she ever had!
Within her extended family, she was considered the glue that kept everyone connected. Her comfort in conversing in Japanese helped build bridges across the Pacific with the rest of the extended family in Tokyo and Hiroshima. One of her proudest moments was when she brought six families of the Hawaii clan to Japan and introduced them to their Japanese cousins. This trip helped her grandchildren, nieces, and nephews learn about their heritage. She taught "Okagesama de" to convey a deep sense of humility and gratitude that we are who we are because of those who came before us. She cherished the lessons of past generations and was energized to pass them on. As one of her cousins in Japan once said, "Sharon connected all of our families in Japan and Hawaii. We will be together forever".
She is survived by her husband Cullen, daughter Tamra (Chad), and grandsons Braedon and Caleb Nakamoto. Service to honor and celebrate her life is scheduled for December 29, 2022, at the Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary at 6 PM.
Arrangements Provided By: Nuuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary LLC
