After 33 years of parenting, four children, two step-children and three husbands, real estate agent and RE/MAX Gold Award Winner, Sharon McSweeny has just one person to focus on.
As her youngest travels abroad after graduating high school, Sharon herself is discovering a freedom never quite afforded to her until now.
"I'm going to do a bit of 'Y' generation," she laughs.
It is a contrast to her own youth, when she was married at 20 and helped care for her young sister after the death of her mother.
"I've sort of been raising kids for a long time," she says.
Settling into married life in Brisbane, Sharon then had a son and daughter and focused on building a hair and beauty business. But after this marriage ended and another began, she found herself on the other side of the country, flying across sweeping paddocks.
Her second husband's work as an agricultural pilot took them throughout Western Australia and up to Burdekin in north Queensland, where they spent seven years raising their family, which now included another two sons.
During this time Sharon worked as the Endeavour Foundation's manager for Burdekin, a job she says was extremely rewarding and diverse.
Tragically, a plane crash claimed the life of her husband and ended the contented country existence they spent together. Even more heartbreaking was the fact he survived a seemingly worse accident seven years earlier.
"So that was probably one of the most traumatic things of my life."
She moved to the Sunshine Coast where her sister lived and settled her children in at Sunshine Coast Grammar School.
Through the school she met a fellow widower who she later married, who had four children of similar ages.
They bought a resort on Magnetic Island, near Townsville, and while her husband worked overseas, Sharon ran the resort and looked after their four younger children.
On top of this, she undertook part-time study of anthropology and psychology to satisfy a desire to do something for herself.
As her husband's work sent them further across the globe, Sharon continued her degree via correspondence with the University of Southern Queensland and has recently completed a Bachelor of Communication from the University of the Sunshine Coast, graduating with a majority of distinctions.
Amazingly, she also gained her full real estate license during this time and began working for RE/MAX Property Associates Buderim over three years ago. Her plethora of life experience and academic knowledge has obviously served her well; in 2006 Sharon was awarded the RE/MAX Gold Award.
Although Sharon has since separated from her husband, she continues to raise his daughter, who she calls her 'chosen child', while he works overseas.
"That marriage didn't work out, but the family did," she says.
And while they are scattered throughout Australia and beyond, it is clear they are very near her heart.
"I'm just ready for the next adventure in my life and that doesn't mean it excludes my family, it's very much inclusive of that, but I can go forward by myself," she says.
