I’m sure most of you reading this have heard that Shawn recently passed away after a brief bout with cancer.\u00a0 I last saw Shawn while he was undergoing diagnosis over at the North Oaks Hospital in Hammond.\u00a0 I visited with him for a couple hours and although I could see he was exhausted, he was still his usual upbeat self.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He was just being Shawn . . . ever optimistic.<\/p>\n
So it was with great surprise that I received the message of his passing.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 His loss weighs heavily on me.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Then it suddenly hit me.\u00a0 They were<\/em> special and close to Shawn, each and every one of them.\u00a0 That’s because Shawn had a way of making each person he spent time with feel that he considered them a special friend.\u00a0 He would talk to you one-on-one.\u00a0 He would spend time with you and listen to your stories and viewpoints.\u00a0 He would relate to you and always seemed to have something in common with you.\u00a0 He was a bright, gifted, funny and outgoing individual, but he never portrayed himself as superior.\u00a0 It was easy to be a close friend to Shawn because he made you feel that he considered you<\/em> a very close friend.<\/p>\n So as it turns out, everyone was accurate in what they said.<\/p>\n Rest in peace Shawn, my good friend.<\/p>\n -Jack<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m sure most of you reading this have heard that Shawn recently passed away after a brief bout with cancer.\u00a0 I last saw Shawn while he was undergoing diagnosis over at the North Oaks Hospital in Hammond.\u00a0 I visited with … Continue reading