Cassilia Sherman

March 13, 1970 - March 15, 2023

Cassie Sherman passed on March 15th, The Ides of March, two days after her 53rd birthday. She was ultimately brought down by the toxic blend of mental illness & homelessness. Prior to that tragic day so much had happened. She was charismatic & beloved by so many of her classmates at Woodway HS back in the mid-1980s. And delivered a funny & memorable speech to the graduating class of 1988. After a number of years attending UC Santa Cruz & living in a few different cities, she & her boyfriend, Sennid, had a child. Cassie fought tooth & nail to bring life & breath to her son. She raised him within the confines of freedom & turbulence. Stability wasn't in the cards. She was sidetracked & derailed so often by her mental disorder but she dug in & gave her boy love, admiration, & confidence. He has emerged from a nomadic childhood as remarkably kind, brilliant, & self-reliant. His was anything but a helicopter childhood. She maintained her mothering of Theo throughout difficult times because, at her core, Cassie was goodness personified. And that's what's embedded in Theo. He recalls her baking, especially sweets & chocolate most of all. The girl loved chocolate, especially from See’s, milk chocolate, of course. “Chocolate is good for the soul,” as she would say. Watch the two of them pigging out & devouring a pack of Milanoes, not a crumb left. All this as they giggled their way through the daily Calvin & Hobbes strip. When he had trouble sleeping she would play Tea for the Tillerman or sing songs from The Sound of Music guiding him to rest. The two of them loved their card games, particularly Casino. Theo typically the winner, laughing & poking at each other late into the night. Cassie made sure Theo had his cup of tea sweetened with love n honey. He credits his mom with teaching him the rules of the games & offering up smart strategies which he has morphed into his professional skills as a techie. It's true for many kids, eating was a sometime battleground. Cassie finessed the games with lots of cheese & cut-up apples. Later on, chili and crepes were successfully added. They relished the movies they watched together, also late into the night. “Hot Rod” an all-time favorite. Theo & Cass left with stomach aches from laughing so hard at the “WH-isky” or "Babe!" or rolling down the mountain scene. They were always speaking in movie quotes and reenacting scenes in the pursuit of making each other laugh. Now, Cassie will return to the earth she loved. We have decided on an EARTH FUNERAL for her. She will evolve into compost & will survive eternally within the glory of the Olympic National Forest providing nurture & nutrients to all the fauna & flora that make this spot of beauty their home. Anyone who wants some of Cassie’s soil, just let one of her closest people know or write it in the Memorial Book on this site, & we'll be sure to get some to you. Sometime within the year, we who love Cassie will join together at her darling grandparents' gravesite in Las Vegas. Hope many of you join us. And, finally, please donate as much as will make you smile, in Cassie's name, to your local food bank &/or homeless shelter. Once again within the Memorial Book on the EARTH FUNERAL site, please leave photos & remembrances, & fun stories (especially from Woodway).