Shannon is my second born. She arrived in this life in much the same manner that she arrives anywhere: with the intent to be there – a short fast burst of labor, and there she was in my arms. Her Dad and I had been seated at the counter of a home decorating store, paying off our bill, when my water broke. I hadn’t experienced this with my first pregnancy but it’s one of those things in which you automatically know exactly what has happened. Not wanting to make a public mess, I sent my husband to the car for a towel hoping that by remaining seated there I could contain the seepage to just my own person until such time that I could wrap the towel around my lower extremities and slink into the restroom nearby. Unfortunately my husband came back into the store with the retrieved linen waving it wildly into the air to signal to me across the square footage of the premises and for all to see that the cavalry was coming. Subtlety out the window anyway, my labor pains were beginning. By the time I was settled in the car, hard labor was upon me. The requisite packed bag already traveling with us, we headed straight to the hospital. This all started around 5:15 in the afternoon, a solid few hours of hard, hard labor and by 9:15 pm, she was quietly content in my arms, having already nursed and beginning to slumber.

She was born on 8/27/87. We brought her home to 827 Colton St., the lower half of a fixer upper Victorian duplex we had purchased a few months earlier to accommodate the expanding family. She weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz, which seemed huge in comparison to her older sister at 7 lbs, 2 oz. I thought she was going to be a big girl, but birth weight and length is sometimes a harbinger of things to come and sometimes means nothing. Shannon was diminutive until her freshman year in high school, not that she became an Amazon at that point, but throughout her childhood and grade school years she remained on the itty-bitty side and one of the teeniest in her class. We never thought she would grow over 5 foot, but from the end of 6^th grade to her freshman year she grew 11 inches! She’s topped out now at 5’ 7” – still not a towering dynamo of a height, but because a lot of it is in her legs and she can wear killer heels without falling, she looks taller than that. She is proud of it and as I said, she exceeded all earlier expectations.

When I was pregnant with Shannon, my regular craving was for guacamole and chips, which I indulged several days a week. I like a simple recipe: 4 ripe avocadoes, mashed; 1 ripe tomato, diced; 1 hard-boiled egg, diced; juice of ½ lemon, and liberal doses of garlic salt; eaten with corn tortilla chips. During the pregnancy I used to make a batch in the afternoon once baby Katie was down for her nap and consume the whole thing myself in one sitting. It was not selfish, my husband hates the stuff and Katie had not yet acquired a taste and my stepson Brian held to his Dad’s sympathies. Once she emerged from the womb, a meal of guacamole and chips became a favorite indulgence between Shannon and me. It remains so to this day.

Shannon’s nickname became Shash because as a little girl, when she was asked her name, she would pull her index finger (which she sucked continuously, stopping only to speak and eat) out of her mouth with a soft little pop sound releasing the suction and reply haltingly and in a barely audible voice, with her eyes intently directed at her questioner:

“I …Sha..Sha.”

With her Dad’s tendency to play with nicknames, Sha-Sha eventually became Shash and an assortment of other evolutions: Shabbe, Shabbe-doo, Shabbalabaga.

If you were to take a superficial read on Shannon (and there have been those who make that mistake and stop there), you might think that she is high maintenance and all about her looks. You couldn’t be more wrong. Yes the good Lord blessed her with natural beauty, she loves clothes and make-up and having it put together just so, but her gorgeous smile emanates from her soul. Her cheerful perkiness is real and kicks up several notches when she is around the loved ones and extended family that she holds dear. She is loyal and generous on every level and derives true pleasure from being helpful and supportive.

She is more deeply touched by any level of thoughtfulness than some high end dollar gift. As a little girl, the unwrapping of her birthday and Christmas gifts was always followed by rapturous exclamations in her somewhat stilted English: “Oh Thank you, Thank you! This is dis what I always wanted!” And she truly meant it. The idea that someone got something just for her was just such a big deal. Everyone loved to draw her name for the cousin’s Christmas gift exchange because they knew it meant easy shopping and sure success. On her 19^th birthday, the fact that her Dad and I drove to Naperville to watch her run in a marathon and take her and her friends out to breakfast afterward was all that she could ever ask for. She responded as though it was generosity beyond measure when we handed her a gift bag at the end of the meal with a pair of birthstone peridot earrings for her. Whenever she has them on, she wears those earrings like Liz Taylor wears her diamonds!

Shannon has a hearty, hearty laugh that loves - thoroughly loves and appreciates physical comedy. You can always tell when Shannon is home, curled on the couch watching reruns of America’s funniest Home Videos; the whole house is echoing with her mirth. It gives me a warm fuzzy inside every time!

Shannon has an endearing way of taking malapropisms to an entirely different dimension. She will toss off a phrase that you know isn’t exactly right but somehow fits the situation. You have to think about it for a minute before the pieces fall into place. A few examples:

Shannon’s phrase: “You can always kill a bird with two stones!” = derived from saying: “You can kill two birds with one stone.” = Shannon’s sensibilties: “If something doesn’t work out the first try, you can get it on the second.”

Shannon’s Phrase: “There’s nobody here but us mittens!” = derived from saying: “There’s nobody here but us chickens!” = Shannon’s sensibilities: “Mittens come in pairs, therefore when something is being said that is to be kept between two parties or just two people are in one place, one let’s the other know that there is nobody here but us mittens.”

Shannon’s Phrase: “ Well! I guess nobody brought them any sweet rolls when they got off the dock!” = derived from two or more sayings: An inexperienced person is said to be “fresh off the boat” and “If I knew you were coming I would have baked a cake.” = Shannon’s sensibilities: “That person is crabby because no one paid them any special attention when they needed it.”

Shannon’s unique take on things always has a certain logic to it, sprinkled with a kind of optimism and compassion that’s hard to beat.

I started writing this piece last week when my heart was heavy on many levels with the passing of Ted Kennedy. It mades me think about how Shannon is always willing to listen to and is curious about the events of my lifetime and how they shaped my thinking and emotional makeup.

In seventh grade, Shannon found the athletic activity in which she could excel: cheerleading. My Mama Bear always comes out when I get to this subject because there are such negative stereotypes when it comes to cheerleading and as a sport it is often dissed and maligned. It’s her birthday and I’m her Mom and I’m going to indulge! You try standing for 2 to 4 hours straight, bouncing on your toes, keeping your arms at chest height, clapping and maintaining a positive outlook when your team is losing 35 – 0 in the rain as her high school team often did. Shannon’s sparkle as a cheerleader is an extension of her supportive nature. She took as much pride in being a strong base for the flyers as she did in being a flyer herself. She sustained serious injuries and her share of bruises and black eyes. She was just a happy presence out there! This fall will be the first time in ten years that she won’t be cheerleading for a football game. I will so miss watching her!

When Shannon moved to Connecticut immediately after her college graduation party, she set in motion the sea changes that have marked the last vestiges of the transition from still our dependent to living her own life. One of the great highlights of my time in Arizona was the fact that Shannon was able to join me out there, which I will talk about more in the coming chapters of the Sedona Series.

For now I will say “Happy Birthday Beautiful Shannon Girl!”

Footnote: I wrote this last week while in Marshfield getting Katie set up in her new life as a teacher.  The only pictures I had of Shannon to accompany this post are what I had available on this computer. Some of the family archive photos that I would have liked to scan for this writing were not available to me. I intended to scan different ones once I got home but have been doing so much catching up that I'm just not getting around to it.  Hopefully will have some childhood pics with this before the week is out.  So if you are reading this now, check back in a few days to see other pictures.