I’m sure most of you reading this have heard that Shawn recently passed away after a brief bout with cancer.  I last saw Shawn while he was undergoing diagnosis over at the North Oaks Hospital in Hammond.  I visited with him for a couple hours and although I could see he was exhausted, he was still his usual upbeat self.  In a couple email exchanges after that (the most recent was a week or so before his passing), he had a positive attitude and didn’t even hint that this cancer was a real problem.  He was just being Shawn . . . ever optimistic.

So it was with great surprise that I received the message of his passing.  On the one hand I suppose that I should have seen it as almost inevitable, but yet with Shawn, you just can’t make that assumption as his spirit was contagious.  His loss weighs heavily on me.

For several days after his death I read a dozen or so posts on the LRMRG Yahoo Forum, and I’ve received quite a few emails about this also.  One thing that I repeatedly read was the writer’s claim that Shawn was such a close friend; in fact, many of the writers felt that their friendship with Shawn was perhaps special; closer than those other folks around him.

Then it suddenly hit me.  They were special and close to Shawn, each and every one of them.  That’s because Shawn had a way of making each person he spent time with feel that he considered them a special friend.  He would talk to you one-on-one.  He would spend time with you and listen to your stories and viewpoints.  He would relate to you and always seemed to have something in common with you.  He was a bright, gifted, funny and outgoing individual, but he never portrayed himself as superior.  It was easy to be a close friend to Shawn because he made you feel that he considered you a very close friend.

So as it turns out, everyone was accurate in what they said.

Rest in peace Shawn, my good friend.

-Jack