Sébastien had his central line replaced last Friday… Hopefully, the new line will decrease the infection Sébastien has been getting, and have him back on the transplant list soon! I thought I’d post the second interview I’d mentioned in February, and this time, we have the honor of having Shania’s parents talk about how they stayed together and happy, despite the challenges of having a daughter in the advanced stages of neuroblastoma at age 7.
We dated for 11 years before we got married. Of those 11 years we lived together for 8. We were married in August 1997.
When Shania was born she was a healthy child and had been up until June 2006, when she was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. She was 7 when she was diagnosed. While growing up Shania was a very happy child, always smiling and laughing. Shania was mature for her age and was a solid “A” student. Shania loved school, that is where her heart was and is. She wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. Shania loved everything that life had to offer. She could take a plain box and make it into hours of imaginary play. We are privileged to have Shania in our life. When Shannon, her sister, was born Shania was the proudest sister. She loved her and was a great big sister. Prior to Shania getting ill, we do not believe that we had anymore challenging times then any other family with children, jobs and bills to pay. We both knew what we wanted in life for us and our children. We tried to keep the focus on what was important to us. After Shania was born Shayne continued to work full time. I stayed home with Shania for a year and 18 months with Shannon. I then returned to work part time. We felt it was important to be home with them as much as possible, while they are young.
We have a positive attitude about life and tried to maintain that positive attitude throughout Shania’s illness. (Even now that we have lost her). We really enjoy being a family. We can’t imagine a life without children. They are an absolute joy. However a positive attitude is not the only thing. We kept the respect for each other. Everyone deals with things in their life differently. Everyone’s needs are different and we need to respect that. In our family we focus on communication but more importantly listening to each other and respecting the differences that we each have. These differences make each of us so special. We were also fortunate to be able to take the time off from work and totally focus on Shania, Shannon and us.
We believe that we had a strong relationship prior to Shania’s diagnosis. During Shania’s treatments, surgeries and transplant we drew our strength from each other as well as from our family and friends. However Shania taught us that no matter what you may be facing in your life you can always make a difference. Shania always kept a positive attitude and during her treatments decided she wanted to help other children. She did not want to see any other children have to suffer. She started by selling bracelets, key chains and necklaces. This was how Shania’s Sunflower of Hope got started. It has grown beyond anything that we ever imagined and in 1 year has raised over $64,000.00.
Thank you Jacinta for the opportunity to be in your blog. We started up Shania’s website to keep our incredible supportive community up to date on Shania’s condition and also to help with her fundraising efforts. Writing Shania’s blog has been an honour for me because there are so many special moments that take our breath away to write about, even after she is gone. Her love continues to live on not only in the hearts of the people that knew Shania, but also in the hearts of people that never met her. She had and still has that effect on us.
We have met so many special people along the journey of this horrible disease. It has been truly uplifting for us to know that there are so many kind hearted people. We will never give up on Shania’s dream to find a cure so that no other child has to suffer from this disease. Even though our Shania is gone our love for her will never die.
I have often wondered to myself (Why me?) why have I been so blessed to have these three beautiful people in my life. I feel like I’m the luckiest man on earth. From the moment that I met Karen I knew that she was special. I see those special qualities in our daughters Shania and Shannon. I don’t know what my life would have been like if I had never met Karen. But I do know that it would never have been even close to what I have now. I love my wife Karen and no matter what happens in our lives I will always love her. Thank you Karen, Shania and Shannon for being you!!!
Life is short, don’t forget to live it. Keep on smiling!
Sincerely,
Shayne, Karen and Shannon
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