By Alisa Boswell

The first time I sat down to interview Portales Mayor Sharon King in 2010, she ended up interviewing me for the first 30 minutes.

It wasn’t drilling me; it wasn’t an attempt to avoid the interview (it was a human-interest piece). She was simply genuinely curious to get to know me. She began asking about my goals in my career, my dreams and aspirations, and I rambled on for a little while before we got back to the reason why we were sitting down together.

I remember being floored that this lady even remotely cared about the dreams and aspirations of a 25-year-old reporter just starting out. For the next several years, Sharon and I would maintain a professional relationship of mutual respect, and what I like to think was also a friendship.

Sharon King gave up her fight with cancer on Thursday to go on to better things.

After about two years working with the newspaper and various public officials, I began dating a local sheriff’s deputy whom Sharon adored. When he and I began dating, she very matter-of-factly told me, “just remember, he was my boyfriend first.” And she never let me forget it.

When he proposed in January 2016 via a newspaper ad, Sharon was the first one to text me that day to say, “Our boyfriend did good.”

My response: “Yes he did.”

As the wedding approached, Sharon told me she was going to allow him to be my husband, but she still got to call him her boyfriend. That works for me, I said.

And that was the essence of mine and Sharon King’s relationship over the course of the several years we worked together. We were professional and got down to business when we needed to, but we also joked, laughed and teased one another, because that’s just who Sharon King was.

Any time it came down to me calling to interview her about an unpleasant topic, Sharon never treated me any differently. She didn’t get upset or heated. She was still the epitome of pleasant and professional. I valued that so much in her, because that was often not the case when it came to interviewing many others about unpleasant topics.

Even when I did not completely understand why she made certain decisions she made as a mayor, I respected her no matter what.

Sharon was more than just the mayor of Portales; she was a woman with an extreme passion for loving and serving her community, and she was a friend.

There is a hole in the heart of Portales now.

I am so glad you are at rest now, Sweet Lady.

I will miss you.