A quick shout out to Sunny the Wonderdog who turned 6 today. That means in dog years, she and I are now the same age.
I couldn't sleep last night and it feels like I can barely breathe today - reminders of Shannon seem to be all around me. While raking the yard, I hear Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl and I'm a puddle. While trying to plan a spring break trip, I can't make a decision partly because I can't imagine going on a trip like that without her. Then the e-mail comes reminding us its time to pick our family's week at the cabin... Uff da ...
Dan has been swamped with work and too busy to let his mind go there too often. So, while I've been the weepy one stuck in slow motion, he's the one keeping it moving and keeping it together. (You gotta know that's killing me... :)
One more anecdote I wanted to share from our weekend of sports viewing. Shannon and the Rebels went to a Gopher women's hockey game back in November and had a chance to meet a few of the players. One Gopher, Katie Frischmann, is from Rochester and kept up on Shannon's journey. After Shannon's passing, we got a card in the mail with a wonderful condolence note and a photo from Katie and her teammate Megan Bozek letting us know that they were putting Shannon's name on their sticks to honor her for the rest of their season.
Well, that very Gopher women's hockey team just won the National Championship yesterday with a victory over arch rival and #1 ranked Wisconsin. I sent Katie a quick note of congrats and received this response:
"On behalf of Megan and I, I want to thank you. We have had Shannon's name on our sticks through the remainder of the season, rewriting it when we got a new stick. It was a nice daily reminder to love every day and to be grateful for the opportunity we've been given. I know Shannon was watching us win that Championship today, and I hope we made her proud..."No wonder I'm a blubbering idiot these past couple of days ... like a pebble in the ocean, the ripple effects are still surfacing...
