Yvonne Scheier Whight's Obituary
Yvonne Scheier Whight lost her battle with young onset Alzheimer’s disease on August 11, 2017 in San Francisco, California at age 65.Yvonne was born in San Pedro, California on July 4, 1952 to parents, Pauline and Roy Gay. She was the youngest of three children, her older brothers are Rex and David Gay. She attended Cal State Northridge and San Diego State Universities, earning her Master’s degree in Child Development. Yvonne started her passion in education as a preschool teacher and dedicated her life to serving and educating children. After a few years, she moved to Northern California and settled in Half Moon Bay, where she lived for almost 20 years.Yvonne took a break from child development in the early 80’s as the Silicon Valley tech industry was on the verge of massive change. She worked as an account executive for then marketing expert, Regis McKenna, where she was assigned to represent a newer company and a young entrepreneur named Steve Jobs at Apple computer. While Yvonne enjoyed the tech world and found life-long friends there, motherhood called.Yvonne was a dedicated and loving mother raising her 2 wonderful children Lauren and Sprout in the coastal Half Moon Bay community. She loved to participate in all the holidays decking out the house for Halloween and on one occasion transforming the living room into a totally believable Middle Eastern oasis for a belly dance party for Lauren’s 16th birthday.She continued her career with children in the field of autism. She was a hands-on early interventional therapist and found a special fondness for children with special needs. She once remarked with pride, “I’ve never seen an autistic child I couldn’t help”. She truly had a gift for lovingly helping children. The children and their parents loved her.In 2001, Yvonne met John Whight and they began dating. In 2002 John proposed to Yvonne while at dinner in the famed Jules Verne restaurant in the Eiffel Tower overlooking the lights of Paris. In 2003, they were married in Kent, on the outskirts of London in beautiful Leeds Castle. John had a daughter, Sarah, who Yvonne adored as her own and they formed a household together with the 3 teenagers.Yvonne was a passionate and hardworking woman who enjoyed spending time with her husband, soaking in the sun at the beach with a good book, watching a good movie at the cinema, traveling and throwing parties for her family and friends. Everyone who knew her was touched by her and will miss her dearly.She is survived by her husband John and children Lauren and Sprout.Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the USA. There is no cure and there is no treatment that prevents its advancement. It kills more Americans than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.Today there is a worldwide quest to find new treatments to stop, slow and perhaps even prevent Alzheimer’s disease and the Alzheimer’s Association is on the front lines of those efforts in the USA.If you would like to contribute to the fight against this crisis in memory of Yvonne please click the link below.https://act.alz.org/site/Donation2?df_id=32112&32112.donation=form1&set.custom.wt=nov-b
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