By: Chris Giovarelli
Sometimes even normal people have the opportunity to live a life that is extraordinary.
When Sharon Giauque was a young girl in Salt Lake City she never expected that her life would whisk her across the globe and eventually toss her center stage in a world where everything bled blue.
'I always wanted to be a school teacher,' she said. 'Being a mother and wife was always my aim; but I never wanted to do anything else professional.'
While working as a secretary while attending the University of Utah, she met her boss's son, a recently returned missionary named Cecil Samuelson.
In what they affectionately refer to as an 'arranged marriage,' the Samuelsons fell in love and were sealed in 1964.
Just over 40 years later, as the wife of the university president, Sister Sharon Samuelson is nestling into the middle of her fourth year as the metaphoric mother of a campus-family of over 30,000 children, a position that she sometimes finds daunting.
'I am really a sit in the back of the classroom kind of girl,' she said. 'Getting up in front of people and giving a talk and knowing it will go all over the world can be overwhelming.'
Still, at a little over five feet tall, with a glowing wit and an independent personality, Sister Samuelson fills her own shoes very comfortably.
'You admire so much the people who have been in this call and their wives, I hoped I could do it,' she said.
The call to serve at BYU came as a great surprise to Sister Samuelson, who claims it took her nearly half an hour to believe her husband when he brought her the news.
'It wasn't anything that we had ever thought about,' she said. 'I jokingly told him I needed President Hinckley's phone number to check it out.'
All jokes aside, however, when it came down to it, Sister Samuelson took the call without hesitation.
'I don't like the limelight and I knew what it would entail and it was really overwhelming,' she said. 'But it was a call from the prophet, and I have always had the faith that the Lord will help you when you are taken out of your comfort zone.'
The change from crimson red to cougar blue caused quite a stir with those who were familiar with the Samuelsons' long-standing ties with the U.
Despite the faith to fill the new assignment, even Sister Samuelson speculated how she would be received in Provo.
'We had been at Utah for all these years,' Sister Samuelson said. 'I wondered how they would accept us.'
In the days and weeks following their call, the Samuelsons received many colorful gifts. Friends and family sent red and blue flowers, balloons and candy, and called to question where their loyalty would lie.
Of the many pranks that were sent, the most amusing was a cake that had blue and white icing on the outside but a deep red inside.
These days, the Samuelsons are diehard BYU fans inside and out.
'We totally bleed blue and white,' Sister Samuelson said with a smile. She described one of her happiest recent experiences as watching BYU beat Utah in its dramatic last-play victory.
Sister Samuelson's change in blood type has even begun to affect the youngest members of her family.
'We have this seven-year-old grandson who goes down at games to sing 'rise and shout,' then he goes back to his parents and other grandparents who are all Utah fans,' she said. 'We are kind of giving him a split personality.'
Following sports has always been a big part of Sister Samuelson's life; a passion she attributes to being the oldest of five - and the only girl.
She loves to catch games while working out or doing handiwork, such as knitting or crochet. That way, she doesn't feel guilty for taking time to watch television.
'I especially like watching games when I'm not so emotionally involved in the outcome,' she said. 'Watching a Jazz game on the treadmill is ideal; if they win, great, if they lose, I can just say too bad. It's not like BYU sports.'
Besides watching the occasional game in her spare time, Sister Samuelson has been a member of a book club for nearly 30 years and admits to a controlled addiction to sudoku.
'I have to pull myself away so I don't do it too much,' she said.
Sister Samuelson's hobbies have developed much over the past 40 years, due in part to the fact that her husband was often away for professional or church assignments.
'We sat down and figured it out, and in our 42 years of marriage I think we have probably sat together in church a quarter of the time,' she said. 'I have learned to do what I want to do alone and I am fine with doing it that way.'
Among other things, Sister Samuelson learned to go to parties solo, host dinners, fulfill church callings, and even fix things around the house in her husband's absence.
'It saves time when he is home if we don't have to do some of the mundane things, so if I can change the light bulb or shovel the walk, I do it,' she said.
These days the Samuelsons are spending more time together than probably ever before. The responsibility to build BYU into a world-class institution is one that both she and her husband take very seriously and give substantial time to.
'We realize that our time is not our own. Not just with BYU, but also with church assignments,' she said. 'In our other life, we could take a week and go somewhere whenever we wanted, but that isn't an aspect of our life that is feasible now.'
She says that coming to Provo and being placed in the public eye has been a wonderful growth experience for her. When she and her husband do leave, she believes they will be different from when they came mainly beauseof the wonderful people they've interacted with at BYU.
'The prophet said to change from red to blue,' and said with a laugh. 'And when the prophet speaks, we obey.'