Rita Sharma was helped to summer pasture for the last time on the sunny afternoon of August 27,2025. She was last seen leaving the comfort of her home and advancing with purpose into a field of fresh grass and lush red clover.
Rita has been known by many names and filled many roles through her life. As Rita Ann (her least favorite moniker), she was tasked to, and has successfully carried on the matrilineal legacy of Mehaffey Farms from her parents Paul and Wilma Lang, and her Grandparents Carl and Edna Mehaffey. Not afraid to be herself or by herself, Rita Ann loved leatherworking, science fiction, cows, and playing basketball with the guys at lunch. As an adolescent and college student, Rita set the standards of excellence in 4-H, at Seeger High School, and at the University of Illinois with Grand Champion, Valedictorian, and the Bronze Tablet as a few examples of the many feathers in her cap. Her many and still loyal friends from this stage in her life reflect an unwavering trustworthiness of character.
Mom was her next life role. This she fulfilled in a manner so unique to herself. As a young mother with beautiful long brown hair and musical golden bangle bracelets, she shared with and taught her children about the land that she loved. She prepared gourmet meals from home grown food to honor them, and more than once she stood in front of charging cows (literally and figuratively) to protect them. As a mother to adolescents, she was pleasantly oblivious (we think) to her distinctive appearance with work jeans, boots, and her ever present fence pliers attached to her leather belt. Once, she simultaneously indulged us and taught us a lesson: after being goaded by her three cheering teenagers into running a stop sign (at SR 263 and SR 28) she was immediately pulled over and ticketed by a cop who happily showed us the consequences of irresponsible behavior.
Her role as Mom was to create opportunities without implicit expectations . . . other than the obvious – Whatever you do, you should apply yourself to it, and you'd better see it through to completion.
Her children raised, as Dr. and Mrs. O. P. Sharma, she set their joint priorities toward agricultural advocacy on a local, state, national, and international level. She was equally comfortable in the barn lot at calving time, in the Indiana Farm Bureau Board Room as District Director, on the Capitol Steps sharing her lived wisdom with elected leaders, and in forging partnerships with governments and family farmers in other countries.
Perhaps her most indulgent role was that of Gigi, grandmother. From a young adulthood of austerity and sacrifice, Gigi had graduated to live in a world where her inhibitions were left behind. At times – especially around Christmas and Birthdays – Gigi somehow never thought there was enough gild on the lily. Cakes & cookies, iPad's and Nintendo's, steaks & lobsters were just the start, but not the magic that made her home the place to be. There must be something special in her love that has made it nearly impossible for me to drag my now adolescent boys away from Omi and Gigi's for the past more than a decade.
Rita's life was not without its challenges. These too she faced head on, and was often left with battle scars to show. Intended or not, these were important lessons for those around her.
She enjoyed a life thoroughly lived and explored. Those of us closest to her consider ourselves fortunate to have experienced her phenomena.
Rita's life and legacy lives on through her devoted husband Om, her daughter Reena, and her sons Rischi and Sean. Nine grandchildren are fortunate to call her Gigi, and all are ready to seize the opportunities she has made possible.
An opportunity for remembrance will be held in Om and Rita's home on Saturday, September 6, 2025 between 1PM-4PM. Light refreshments will be served.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, Rita would have you direct your efforts to support the Warren County 4-H Endowment at the Indiana 4-H Foundation. Please specify the Warren County Endowment and Rita's name in your gift. Memorial contributions may be made to the Indiana 4-H Foundation at PO Box 3125, Indianapolis, IN 46206 or online at in4h.org.
Rita and her family would like to express a special thanks to the many in the community for their love and support, in particular the recent support from the caregivers of Ascension Williamsport Hospital, Warren County EMS, Williamsport Nursing & Rehab, and Elara Hospice.