Shannon Whiley
Is a Renaissance Woman for All Time

God has specialties for all of us, but some people are gifted at many things.

 

Shannon Whiley, Carolyn’s sister and a dear sister to me, as well, is one such person.

 

Shannon is an expert at computers, she excels at accounting, she is a caregiver with extraordinary compassion, she is a world-class athlete who could dunk a basketball and who is a scratch golfer and black belt in karate.

 

More than anything, though, Shannon, like Carolyn and like all of the members of their family, is an angel.

 

I am grateful to Carolyn, who is an extremely generous woman, one of the warmest people I know, for introducing me to Shannon as well as Joe and Mama and Bryan and all of the rascals, in and outside of her family.

 

They are all angels.

 

And Shannon is one of the greatest of the angels.

 

Valedictorian of her school, she is a brilliant woman, who, like Carolyn, has overcome so much in her life.

 

And Shannon, like Carolyn, has always been very loving when talking to me about Barbara.

 

I have had many lovely times with Shannon, who has taught me, a terrible pupil, how to bowl, how to appreciate many of the little moments in life, as Thornton Wilder’s Stage Manager points out in Our Town.

 

Yes, Shannon has a Zen philosophy, like the Stage Manager, who is a God-like figure in Wilder’s most famous play.

 

I could not have gotten through the past few years without the love of God, and I could not have done so without the Lord appointing angels to me, like Carolyn and Shannon and the rest of their family.

 

Shannon may not be living in Italy during the Renaissance, but maybe she did centuries ago.

 

No matter what, she is blessed with a love for all of us, as is Carolyn.  She has been very kind to Carol, my girlfriend, as Shannon always is when she speaks of Barbara.

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God bless you, Shannon, and everyone in the House of the Lord in Jesus’ name.

 

Amen.