Sharon "Sheri" Kae Johannesen

Sharon “Sheri” Kae Johannesen
Des Moines

Sheri was born November 11, 1944 to Ivan and Mable Chapman and passed away peacefully Saturday, May 28, 2016. She grew up on the Eastside of Des Moines and graduated from East High School and even though she lived on the south side for 40+ years she remained true to her East side roots. On December 23, 1965, Sheri married Richard “Jo” Johannesen. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year. Together they had two daughters, Tracy (Monte) Linn of Des Moines and Audrey (Spence) VerMeer of Pella, and the greatest joy in their lives, their granddaughter, Lily.

Sheri was a firm believer in family and everyone will probably remember the Sunday family get together’ s at her parent’s house and then her mother’s after her father passed away. From a young age Sheri loved the fair and would take 1 day to go from sun up to sun down no matter the weather, she even went 5 months pregnant with Audrey and Tracy in toe. She continued this until 2 years ago.

After the girls graduated and moved out it became Sheri and Jo time. When she was not at work as a mail courier for Principal for 20+ years. They would go to the trout stream in Lansing, Iowa. They spent many weekends and week long trips there trout fishing and camping. They started out with sleeping in tents and graduated to a camper. As Sheri continued to fight Lewy Body Dementia she and Jo continued their trips. Sheri learned to fish and hunt mushrooms. From these trips came her love of “mother earth” and fairies. She was an avid collector of all things “fairy”.

On May 26, 2003 Sheri and Jo were blessed with the birth of their granddaughter, Lily VerMeer. Lily became the bond that held Sheri and Jo together through their battle with Shei’s dementia, given Lily, Sheri was at times her “old self”. Sheri lived the last 3 years of her life at Senior Suites in Urbandale where the sign on her door said Nana’s room, so she could always find her spot. The family would like to thank the staff of Senior Suites for the wonderful care they gave Sheri even when she didn’t want it or feel she needed.

The family would like everyone to be more aware of the disease that caused such a difficult health battle for Sheri and them by everyone looking into “Lewy Body Dementia” so that if someone you know may suffer from this you can find help to deal with the heartache this disease causes.

Sheri was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her husband, daughters, granddaughter, brother, Charles (Cheryl) Chapman of Woburn, MA, two sisters, Carol Mable and Linda (Tom) Garrett both of Des Moines, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Thursday, June 2, 2016 at Hamilton’s Funeral Home, 605 Lyon Street, Des Moines. A celebration of Sheri’s life will begin at 1 p.m., Friday, June 3, 2016, also at the funeral home, with burial at Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Family requests memorial contributions may be directed to the family for a future designation to Lewy Body Foundation of their choice.

Condolence messages may be left at www.HamiltonsFuneralHome.com.

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