Sheryl Entwistle, Owner and President, realizes that she is getting older, as are her friends and colleagues (not to mention her family). Recently, Sheryl started noticing that she was hearing fascinating stories about people, but only at their funerals! She invariably learned something about the deceased person that she wished she had known before.

Sheryl thought—wouldn’t it be great if we could tell people how special they are now, while they are still living? And if we could capture their special stories, what has influenced them to become the unique person they are, these stories would be preserved as a legacy to the future. And so Living Celebrations was born.

Sheryl has a varied background and loves a challenge. She has been a corporate trainer, a stockbroker, and a technical writer. She has also done consulting work for IBM, AIG, Pfizer, TIAA-CREF, and SIAC, and has directed a quality assurance program for a major manufacturing company. Sheryl thrives on continual personal development. Sadly, she wishes she could remember more of her own grandmothers’ stories.

Sheryl has been married to her supportive husband for thirty-two years and has three grown children and one grandson.

Bradley Clark, Art Director, was immediately hooked on the idea when approached by Sheryl about a company that would celebrate people’s lives through custom art pieces. Art is often a solitary activity, so working with a talented creative team appealed to him. The process, says Bradley, is exciting, inspiring, and personally satisfying: “We arrive at a solution greater than the efforts of any one individual.”

Bradley has been a freelance illustrator and watercolorist for twenty-seven years, doing commissions for publication, licensing, and private collectors. His watercolors can be found in corporate and private collections nationally and internationally, and his clients include American Express, Scholastic, Godiva Chocolates, Harry & David, Wedgewood/Waterford, the Federal Reserve Bank, Simon and Shuster, and Ogilvy and Mather. He has been recognized by the Art Directors Club of New York and featured in Watercolor Magazine’s “The Art of Business.”

A graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Bradley and his wife, also an artist, have celebrated their twenty-eighth wedding anniversary and have three children.

Laurel Hostetler, Marketing Assistant, joined Living Celebrations in 2006. Her role is both administrative and creative in nature: she handles day-to-day office processes along with managing the company’s website, designing print ads, creating marketing pieces, and running public relations campaigns.

A self-described jack-of-all-trades, Laurel is a published writer, magazine editor and graphic artist, with a background in corporate marketing. For the last seven years, she has served as Managing Editor of The Connection: Your Guide to Better Living, a 64-page health magazine published twice a year and distributed in the American Southwest. She also designs and sells her own line of handcrafted sterling and gemstone jewelry under the name Lahdeedah.

Laurel and her ten-year-old daughter, Kaila, are recent additions to the New York area. The two relocated from San Diego to the historic Hudson Valley just two years ago.