Sarah Arlene Robbins

Sarah Arlene Robbins, age 38, went Home to the Lord on August 11, 2022 of a heart attack at home in Rathdrum, Idaho, with her mother at her side.

Born in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, April 2, 1984, Sarah grew up in Rathdrum, attending Lakeland schools K-12th grade and then went to cosmetology school. Her greatest joy as an adult was being a mother to her pride and joy; her son, Silas, and daughters Charlize and Mackenzie.

Sarah is survived by so many who loved her: her children, Silas (10), Charlize (9), Mackenzie (7) and their father Shane Shantie, her parents, Marvie and Gary Robbins of Rathdrum; her brother, Kelly Robbins and his family; her sister Jill Moser and her husband Chris and their children; grandmother, Eunice Gillam, all of Post Falls, Idaho; uncle Jay and aunt Angie Derting of Clarkston, WA; Uncle Randy and Aunt Jolene Pooley of Rathdrum, ID; Uncle Trace and Aunt Kathryn of Crooks, SD; Uncle Brian and Aunt Diane Pedersen of Iroquois, SD; Uncle Sid Robbins of SD; Aunt Amy Robbins, and numerous cousins and great aunts and uncle whom Sarah loved.

She is preceded in death by her grandfather Eldon Robbins, grandmother Carol Robbins, her grandfather Delbert Gillam, nephew Zachariah Bridwell-Bierman, aunt Diane Robbins, and uncle Neil Robbins.

Family and friends are invited to join in Sarah’s Memorial Service on Friday, August 19th, 2022 at 1pm at Real Life Church, 1860 N Cecil Road, Post Falls, Idaho with reception to follow.

If you feel led, it would be meaningful to us to have memorial donations made to any of the following organizations: Kootenai Recovery community center, Home | Kootenai Recovery Community Center 1621 N 3rd Street, Suite 700, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814; UGM Women’s & Children’s center, http://www.uniongospelmission.org, 196 W Haycraft Ave, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83815; or Kootanai Animal Shelter, Kootenai Humane Society Home (companionsanimalcenter.org)

Sarah's story

Sarah Arlene Robbins, born to Gary and Marvie Robbins, weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 4 oz on April 2nd. They laughed that she was almost an April Fools baby, but she hung on into the wee hours of the next morning! Sarah was the only one of her siblings to be born in Idaho, Before the building was even blue, she came into this world at Kootenai Medical Center, in Coeur D'alene Idaho in 1984.

Gary and Marvie had talked about naming her Sarah Lynn, but instead, they decided on naming her Sarah Arlene. They kept it a secret as to surprise Marvie's mother Eunice, because that was her middle name. The morning Sarah was born she was wisked away to the nursery where Gary and Eunice gathered to watch through the window, Gary said to Eunice, "There's our Sarah Arlene", of course Eunice was surprised and excited, she called Kathy, Marvies sister to share the excitement and Kathy responded rather perturbed because she could only think of a not so nice, Arlene she remembered from back home. After Kathy asked "Where'd they get that name"?! Eunice let her know it was after her! This still makes Marvie giggle to this day.

They brought Sarah home and While Kelly was so proud of his new baby sister, Jill wasn't very excited, after all, she was the baby up till now!...Kelly would just look at her in awe, he even brought all the neighbor boys to her nursery, that was set up in the laundry room at the time, the neighbor kids just stood there all bored as Kelly pointed out her small features and how cute she was, till the boys said, "OK, Can we go back and play now?!"  

When Sarah was nearly 3 years old, She was entered in the Kootenai County baby pageant, She wore a frilly dress that was handed down from Marvie’s sister, Jolene. Sarah won the award for Best Behaved and First Runner Up! 
She had a fond love for all her pets, over the years. She had fish,a hamster, rabbits, kittens, and of course their dog Gizmo that she loved to dress up! 
She practically grew up at the Salon, that her mom owned in Rathdrum, Marvie would bring her in and she’d just play contently while many hair styles passed through those doors! One day someone brought in 2 litters of kittens to the salon, Marvie had told Sarah she could pick one out, then, of course, they went home with 2 kittens instead!  Marvie told Sarah that she would have to pay for one of the kittens to be fixed. Having already heard that boys would be less expensive, when the vet noticed the first one was in fact male, Sarah blurted out, “I'll Pay For That One”!

During her grade school years, Sarah tried many sports, she played softball, basketball, dance and took piano lessons as well. 
She spent a lot of time at Twin Lakes, where Marvie’s family has a cabin. Many afternoons, summers and holidays were spent at the lake making memories swimming and growing up there with her siblings and her cousins. She was more of a beach bum, Marvie took her to swim lessons and the first year, all Sarah did was cling to her mom's leg and absolutely hated it! The following year, much to Marvies relief, she was ready and loved swimming in the lake from then on at her aunt and uncles!

In Sarah's high school years, she was a waitress at Temples in Post Falls. Sarah also babysat, A LOT, She loved kids. While she babysat a lot of kiddos, Sarah had two in particular that she was fond of, Eab and Samara, they were both adopted from Uganda and just held a special place in her heart! After Highschool, Sarah was a bridesmaid for several different friends' weddings, Mindy, Nicole and Jennifer... She was also Jills maid of Honor in her wedding!

In 2004 She married her highschool sweetheart Josh, it was with him that she started her love for dirtbikes and even brought her own one home! It was during her marriage to Josh that she went to beauty school and became a hairstylist working in the salon where she grew up watching her mom do the same thing! Several women who came and went to the salon over the years, loved seeing this once little blonde haired girl grow up to work alongside her mom for a few years! 

It pains me to say that during these beautiful years of Sarah's life, the enemy was hard at work doing his best to steal and destroy. As it happens to many people, Sarah succumbed to the stress of young adult life and ended up with horrible migraine headaches. She did what many of us do and went to the doctor trusting that they would prescribe something to end the horrible pain...Enter, prescription Opioid pills... Now this was before the epidemic was nationally and worldwide known, the FDA was just starting to realize the dangers of prescription pain management, And at that time there weren't measures set up to keep our loved ones quite as safe from addiction. But try as we may, the whole family, heartbrokenly pleaded with Sarah and the doctors to seek help as we watched it steal her away and ultimately direct her choices in her future. If we ever thought she triumphed, which she did... the FDA still had her by the throat with another treatment called Methadone. And while it did keep her from the worst parts of addiction, it still stole, in part, sweet Sarah from her family. We tell this part of her story because We want to warn families with young adult children about the real dangers of prescribed Opioid treatment. These nasty little pills can and will rob you of your loved one while they are still with you, It will rob you of your relationship with your child, rob your child of a normal future, rob them of their health and leave an ugly painful wake of destruction in its path. In Sarah’s case, it weakened her heart. If you suspect this with your family we urge you to talk to someone about it before it's too late.

Anyhow, Sarah and Josh, like many other young couples, didn't stay married for super long. She still worked at His and Hers Salon in Rathdrum.
She met Shane and they started a family. As good as she was with kids we all knew she would love her children and love being a mom. She wouldn't hesitate to tell you that her children are her whole world!  First came Silas, then Charlize and third Mackenzie. These sweet beautiful children, flooded our hearts and social media pages as Sarah shared her love with them to anyone she knew!

This past February, Sarah was in a tragic accident involving a speeding pickup. The passenger, her friend, did not survive, it was something that was very difficult and hard to for Sarah to shake.

She loved to spend her downtime drawing and doing puzzles, she was a sweet and compassionate Daughter, Sister, Granddaughter and Mom, she took the time to listen when you needed an ear...
 and with that, we want you to KNOW THIS...No Matter What... even in our darkest hour...God Forgives, and along with that He gives us a Hope, For those who believe in Him, He casts our sin as far as the east is from the west.
"God's Love is just as Real and just as Powerful in the darkness as it is in the light"! And that, my friends, is why we can have hope.