Sharon Holland Lions

Sharon Holland Lions, 59, passed away peacefully at her home in Denver, CO on Tuesday, October 11, 2016. She lived her life as an Advocate for Humanity, always fighting for the rights and protection of all people and creatures on Earth. Sharon began her professional career in the mental health field at Children's Hospital Denver in 1975, where she helped to create the first psychiatric in-patient unit in a Children's Hospital in the U.S., and the Divorce Visitation Program. After 10 years at Children's Hospital, Sharon created Bridges, which offered counseling, supervised child visitation, mediation, and expert court testimony for families involved in custody and visitation conflicts. In 1991, Sharon met Marilyn Van Derbur Atler, and with D.D. Harvey, her wife, Sandy Cummins, and many survivors and volunteers created Survivors United Network, a non-profit which promoted education and healing for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. In 1993, Sharon and Sandy created a second non-profit, Heart Paths, where together again with Marilyn they created three educational films. The first, ""Once Can Hurt a Lifetime"" originally created to educate juvenile court judges, addressed the long term effects of childhood sexual abuse; this received numerous awards and began national syndication on PBS in the summer of 1995. Sharon's deep love and friendship with Marilyn continued throughout her life, and she was forever thankful for the time they spent together in Vail, CO discussing, editing, and re-writing parts of Marilyn's book, ""Miss America By Day"". Sharon's work with and for survivors of childhood sexual abuse was never ending. Sharon spent the last years of her life capturing thousands and thousands of photographs; she spent countless hours capturing the beauty of animals in nature at Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Parks. Sharon is survived by the two true loves of her life; Sandy, her wife of 24 years, and a very special young man, Max Atler Rosenstein, who taught them both the meaning of love. In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Sharon's name to the Lymphatic Education and Research Network at lympathicnetwork.kindful.com or to The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, CO. A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Sunday, November 6th, 10am at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 1091 South Colorado Blvd. Denver.