Name
Diane Smith

Age
78

How long have you lived in Baytown?
74 years; in 2021 I moved out of state with my daughter, my only surviving relative. She was also ready for a change.

Most interesting fact about you
I’m an amateur writer — short stories and novelettes, poetry and derivative works — and retirement now gives more time for this fascinating hobby.

Background
My entire family was from Mississippi. My father settled in Goose Creek after WWII. After retiring from Enterprise Products following 20 years, I operated my own pet-sitting business for six years. It truly was the best job I ever held. I kept 155 dogs and a few cats, and made good friends along the way.

Goals
I said in 2019, ‘If I have a goal now, late in life, it’s simply to move to a cooler climate.’ Goal accomplished in 2021! After doing some research and finally selling the family homestead, we headed due north and didn’t stop until we were only 60 miles from the Canadian border. We had to quickly learn about installing automobile block heaters, placing weights in the trunk for traction, purchasing the right kind of snow boots, equipping the car with a survival kit, and learning how to drive in deep snow. In Baytown, 4 inches shut the town down. Here, we deal with 4 feet. Blizzards are nothing if we keep the larder stocked, and we are free from the fear of hurricanes and the stings of fire ants and wasps!  

Challenges
We suffered a strange set of coincidences for 27 years. We lost a member of our family every nine years, like clockwork. My husband Larry passed in 1991, my father in 2000, my son in 2009 and my brother in 2018. My husband was the victim of a homicide. I lost my son to alcoholism. He had been unable to cope with his father’s death. After court appearances and several interviews with the local victim’s advocate, Click2Houston news and KTRK-TV news, I came to feel as if my story was only filler for their programs. Nothing was done, or could be done, about the seemingly endless rounds of appeals that Larry’s murderer was granted. That sense of helplessness, coupled with the grief over my son’s death, made each day a torment. I had, as my son once told me, ‘a memory on every corner.’ The only solution was to move. I have found peace of mind and a sense of well-being in my new environment. I’ve also found a greater sense of security, because I have never publicly let it be known where I am. It may sound melodramatic, but I had been very outspoken against Larry’s killer and done what little I could to speed his execution. He had Larry’s wallet and all our information. Should Larry’s killer be paroled — and this is in the realm of possibility — he cannot find us. Meanwhile, I fight against privileges he still enjoys, aided by misguided European support groups, and against his publishing a book touting his innocence. Other than that, the State of Texas can tend to its own machinations without me. I’ve made peace with the concept of never receiving justice.

Happiest or saddest moment
Despite my deep roots and attachment to the town of my birth (I precede Baytown, as I was born in Goose Creek), the happiest day to date has been leaving the old home behind, without a backward glance. My quest is to move forward, and this I’ve done since 2021. In addition to never knowing what the weather is going to do, to my daily activities, everything is new and fresh, with endless possibilities, new faces and the friendliest people I’ve ever met.

Advice
I hope to inspire other young widowed women to realize that they have it within themselves to meet life’s hardships, knock them down, step over them and go forward. Change is the only constant in the universe. Prepare to meet it and twist it to your advantage. I have proved that, even in old age, it’s possible.

Currently reading or watching
My favorite books have always been biographies and historical fiction. Currently I’m reading “Young Woman and the Sea” by Glenn Stout. I’m hoping for a fourth season of “Leverage: Redemption.”

Favorite thing to do in Baytown
I miss all the various Baytown restaurants, especially 888! We finally got a Taco Bell here, which soothes my craving considerably. Favorite thing to do here is sit on my fifth-floor balcony, making macrame plant hangers and watching the horses cavort in the meadow nearby. Life is good.

The post Moving forward despite tragedy appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I was born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. At school, I was in the same class with this girl in first grade, third grade and fifth grade. You could say she was my little girlfriend. I would see her in church and think, some day I’m going to marry her. You know how it is at that age.

“We were supposed to be in sixth grade together, but they put us in different classes. That’s kind of the last time we saw each other. She moved away to New York.

“When I was in 11th grade, I moved to New York with my mom. I didn’t really like it. I moved back for 12th grade, and I was living with a friend. Since I already had enough credits, I didn’t have to go to class. So I got my diploma and started working.

“One day, this fellow invited me to church. There was this beautiful girl, and I wanted to marry her. But it wasn’t to be.

“I continued praying for a wife. And guess who walked into the church? It was the girl from elementary school, now a lady. I knew it was Michelle. As soon as I saw her I told myself, I guess this is the one.

“It must have been because she was about to get married to someone else. When she went to get her marriage certificate, they said she couldn’t marry the guy because he was already married. She didn’t know. So the two of us started dating. Before you know it, about six months after we reconnected, we were married.

“It was like we were never apart. It was awesome. She was a very sweet person. Everything I wasn’t, she was. We had five kids together.

“When she got breast cancer, they wanted to give her chemo. But her veins were so small, it was kind of tough for her. In the hospital the day before she passed, she told them to take it out and let her go. So they did, and she passed on. I cried for two years.

“The funny thing is, a year or so earlier she told me, ‘When I pass, I want you to marry again.’ And I told her, ‘When I pass, I want you to marry again.’ I don’t know why she said that, unless she knew what was coming.

“I haven’t remarried. I’m thinking about it. But it’s hard because you might try to compare, and that wouldn’t be fair.

“We were together 41 years. For me, it was a dream come true.”

— Randall Bascombe

The post Finding his wife ‘was a dream come true’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“One of my duties at work was to create ID badges for all the employees. They had to be renewed on everyone’s birthday. When Juan came to see me, I made his ID and we flirted a little bit.

“Afterward, I jokingly said to my assistant, ‘Oh, my gosh. Tell him that I would rock his world.’ It was a ‘90s thing back then. I was really just joking. But she went and told him, and came back with his phone number.

“He and I talked five or six hours that night. We went out that Friday. Then after three weeks of going out, spending all that time together, he proposed. We made plans really quick. We got married three months later.

“It was pretty much a fairy tale marriage. Everybody would comment on how he’d walk into a room, and his face would light up to see me. They were like, ‘You could be a stranger in the room and know that you were his mate.’

“My husband was a total gentleman, too. I took care of the household. He did a lot of the outdoor stuff. He didn’t want me to do any yard work. I’d be like, ‘Let me help you with the weeds, then we can be finished sooner.’ And he’d say, ‘No, I don’t want you sweating. You go inside and sit pretty.’ People used to laugh about it. But that’s just the type of relationship we had for 20 years.”

Difficult decision

“My first pregnancy, I was having twins. At seven months, I got sick and had to go into the hospital. I spent about five days in labor. They were trying to stop it, but they couldn’t. So I had an emergency C-section. The boys were born premie. One was 3.4 pounds. The other was 4.6 pounds.

“The first born, Aaron, got sick a week later. His intestines weren’t fully developed. They were kind of perforated and causing problems. So they did surgery and took out a third of his colon, I guess with the hope of him having a normal life. It didn’t work.

“A week later, we had to make the decision to take him off life support. But the thing is, he continued to live another week after that. And that was brutal. When they asked us to make the decision, they didn’t expect him to live long. So during that week after, we questioned ourselves so much. Did we make the right choice?

“I revisit his grave from time to time. I went on Mother’s Day to clean his headstone.

“The other twin, Abel, will be 26 in July. You know how they say that twins have a special connection? Definitely, when he was younger, he would cry a lot. Even though he never really got to meet his brother, he would say that he missed him. Because it was this missing piece for him.

“He’s high-functioning autistic. He has Asperger’s. So he’s fully functional to a certain extent. I look at Abel daily, and can’t help but wonder what Aaron would have been like. What would he be interested in? What would his personality be like? It’s tough for me, no matter how much time passes.”

Another son, Chris, will be 22 in September.

No ordinary day

“Juan was a service technician for gas stations in the Houston area. He fixed the gas pumps, the price signs, the cash registers. Basically, all the electronics that needed attention.

“Our normal routine was to text each other around 10 a.m. Every couple hours, we would communicate. He would check on me, and see how my day was going. At noon, during my lunch hour, we’d have a phone conversation.

“Well, on this particular day, his speech started slurring. He said, ‘Something’s wrong.’ I could tell in his voice. Then he said, ‘I can’t see. I’m getting dizzy. I have ringing in my ears. I’m having trouble breathing. I don’t think I can drive.’ Just all these things.

“I told him to pull over and call 911. After a few minutes, I called him back. He hadn’t called 911. He was struggling to drive, and his speech had gotten worse. I couldn’t understand a word.

“So I called 911. I work in La Porte, and my call got routed to Deer Park Police. We were on a three-way, trying to figure out where he was so they could send help. They pinged his phone and got a general area. They dispatched police, fire, ambulance and even tow trucks to look for him. They circled for about an hour.

“Imagine your loved one dying, and you’re on the other end of the phone listening to him struggle. You’re desperately praying and reassuring him that they would find him.

“I finally thought about calling his supervisor. I forgot they used a tracker on their trucks, to see who’s closest for service calls. A few minutes after that, they found him.

“A police officer was the first to arrive. He grabbed his phone and said, ‘It appears your husband had a stroke. I’ll call you back after EMS gets here and assesses him.’

“When I learned what hospital they were taking him to, I told my boss, ‘I have to go. It looks like Juan had a stroke.’ While I was leaving, I called my church. I asked for prayers.”

Juan had a major hemorrhage in his brain stem. After many ups and downs in his recovery, he passed away about six weeks later on April 12, 2015, at age 44. It was two weeks before his oldest son’s high school graduation.

Family still grieving

“I don’t like it when people say, ‘God doesn’t give you more than what you can handle.’ I’m like, OK, I guess I’m Wonder Woman then. I must be so powerful. It hasn’t been easy. I have good days. I have bad days.

“I try to make light of things every day. I laugh. After Juan passed away, I used a lot of widow humor. Some people didn’t like that. I guess it was just my way of coping.

“It’s been really hard with my kids. They lost their best friend, too. He was that dad who was there for them the whole time. To watch them struggle throughout that experience was very difficult.

“They were 18 and 14 when he died. I had to work a lot of hours, so they spent a lot of time alone. They missed out on a lot. But I didn’t have a choice. I had to work.

“We all needed each other’s comfort. Everyone goes through grieving at different times and in different ways. One can go through the anger phase, while the other may just want to hide away and not deal with anything. Seven years later, we’re still dealing with it.

“I was doing pretty well at five years out. But then my best friend of 40 years was a victim of domestic violence. She and her daughter were killed. That set me back again.

“About 10 months after Juan died, his brother told me something. While he was sick, Juan told him to make sure that I moved on. I kind of felt like he gave me his blessing. Not that I was looking for it at that time. But at least I knew it was a possibility, and that he was thinking ahead for me.

“I make fun of my singleness, my singlehood, just because people will say, ‘You’re a real good catch.’ That doesn’t mean anything. That doesn’t mean you’re going to find your soulmate again. Not saying that I won’t. I’ve dated. But I’ve learned that you never know what the future holds.

“My boys are great. They tell me, ‘Mom, we just want you to be happy. We don’t want another dad. We just want another best friend.’”

— Brenda Medina

The post She’s suffered her share of tragic losses appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We were going into Houston for dinner with some good friends. Because we expected to have a drink or two, we asked our daughter to be our Uber driver. She was a college student. She was home. She needed the money. So we had her drop us off, and we were going to call her when we were ready to be picked up.

“After dinner, we took a different Uber to this new bar we wanted to check out. We drank some. We danced. And it was around 12:30 when our daughter came to get us. After dropping off our friends at their house in Crosby, we headed home.

“John was in the front passenger seat, and I was on the bench seat in back. I remember telling them that I was going to lie down, and that Whataburger sounded good. The next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital, and telling my mother, ‘I can’t feel my legs.’

“I learned that we had been hit by a woman in a Hummer. She was driving drunk and texting. Thank God that John and my daughter were OK. He said that I didn’t have my seat belt on. I could not believe that I had taken it off. Because if you know me, I was always the seat belt police.”

She ended up with her head resting on the floor board, and her feet over the back of the seat. Her arm was stuck between the edge of the seat and the door, which had caved in on her shoulder.

“I broke my sternum and the ribs around it. And my spinal cord was injured. I had two surgeries.

“I don’t recall when they told me that I was paralyzed. Maybe I just knew. I would try to move my legs, and nothing happened. I thought, ‘Am I ever going to walk again?’

“I was in the hospital 43 days. It was a roller coaster of emotions. One day I would be OK, and the next I would curse everybody. I didn’t want to go to therapy. I started having major anxiety attacks because I couldn’t move. I was getting claustrophobic. And I was just mad. Mad at the world. Mad at God. Mad at the lady who put me in a wheelchair.

Husband her biggest advocate

“When I found out that I was never going to walk again, I just cried. And I asked God, ‘Why? Why me?’ To be honest, I wanted to die. I hate saying that, because I was the lucky one. There are mothers who would give anything to have their child in a wheelchair, instead of having to bury them.

“But when I finally got home from the hospital, we were all scared. I’m paralyzed from the chest down. I have severe nerve pain that never goes away. How were we going to adapt to this new life? It was tough. Especially that first year, when I was in a hospital bed in what’s supposed to be our dining room.

“But I’ve gradually made progress. Every day I don’t go, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m never going to walk again.’ I continue telling my brain, ‘Pick up your leg and take a step. Now it’s the other leg’s turn.’ I still believe in miracles. I want to believe that I may eventually walk one day. If not, I’m finally adapting to life in a wheelchair.

“For the first 2 1/2 years after the wreck, though, I pretty much stayed home. I didn’t want to go anywhere. Then John began nudging me and said, ‘It’s time. You can’t stay inside all day. You’re going to wind up even more depressed.’ So we’d go to a restaurant. We went to the museum. My son played college football, so we traveled to his games.

“And I’m trying to be that cheerful person I used to be: saying hello, meeting new people. I do that at church, where I feel really comfortable. A little bit more of the old me is coming out. And I don’t feel as trapped inside my body.

“But I could not do this without the support of family and friends. My mother and sister-in-law take care of me during the day. When John gets off work, his other job is to come home and help me. He’s never wavered. We’ll be married 27 years in May. And I feel like our relationship is stronger than ever.

“That part of our marriage vows, in sickness and in health, really means a lot. When I got out of the Shock Trauma Intensive Care Unit, he held my hand and said, ‘We’re going to get through this. I’m here for you. I’ll be here for you forever, until the day I die.’

‘It doesn’t seem fair’

“It wasn’t until several weeks after the accident that they arrested the woman who hit us. The wreck happened in 2018. In 2019, she was finally sentenced to five years.

“We were there for the sentencing. Passing her in the hallway with her standing up and me in a wheelchair, I really wanted to lunge at her. I could feel the rage inside me. She looked at me and then looked away, like no big deal.

“In my impact statement, I said, ‘Look at me. Look what you’ve done to me. I’m not supposed to be in this chair. Because of your actions, I can no longer be a nurse. I can no longer sit and work an eight-hour day.’ I also said, ‘What you did to me, you can do to your own family. You could kill your husband, your children, your grandchild, your mother. Then how are you going to feel?’ I said, ‘If I can save one person by putting you away, then I’m good with that.’ But still, no remorse. She couldn’t even look at me and just say, ‘I’m sorry.’ She never took responsibility for driving drunk.

“She’s up for parole in May. And I’ve been asking family and friends if they’d be willing to write a protest letter to the parole board on my behalf. I mean, she’s only served 2 1/2 years of her five-year sentence, while I have to serve a life sentence with my injuries in a wheelchair. It makes my blood boil.

“I hope she’s learned something from the whole experience. But from what we’ve seen online, her family is just ready for her to get out so they can have a big party. It doesn’t seem fair at all.”

— Patti Pequeno Farris

The post Drunk driver forever changes her life appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I’m 83. Been married four times. Divorced twice. The other two passed with cancer.

“I lost my wife, Jewell, on Jan. 19 last year. She was 69. She dealt with that cancer for many years. It spread all over. But if you had seen her walking around, you never would have thought she had cancer. She was always happy.

“Then one day, me, her and the daughter went to the funeral home. I said, ‘Why are we going there?’ My wife said, ‘Hush, you’ll find out later on.’ She didn’t want me to know that she had only six months to live. She didn’t want me to worry. And I tried my best. But sometimes at night when that cancer moved, man, she’d go to hollering. I didn’t know what to do for her. There was nothing I could do but sit there and look at her.

“But she never did complain. That was just the kind of person she was. She was jolly, happy, all the time.

“When we were at church for the funeral service, that’s when I broke down. I couldn’t take it no more. But that’s all right. It’s best to cry. Best to get it all out. Because if you keep it in, it gets worse and worse.

“At the cemetery, oh man, my chest locked up on me. I thought it was my heart. But it was all that stress. I didn’t know it could be so strong. They had to rush me to the hospital. I wasn’t there to see them put her in the ground. I haven’t been back to the cemetery. It’s too hard. I try not to think about the bad stuff, all I’ve been through. I try to keep my mind off things like that.

“Before she passed, my wife told me, ‘You don’t have to worry about me. Because I know where I’m going.’ And that’s a good blessing. Yes, indeed.”

— C.J. Edmond

C.J. is a deacon at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Baytown, where Jewell also was a long-time member. “I used to have dogs when I was young. I had one that I called Bozo. My mother would say, ‘Both you Bozos, get out of that bed.’ Then my sister started calling me Bozo the Clown. It stuck. Everybody at church calls me Bozo. Even my pastor.”

The post Cancer takes wife, who ‘never did complain’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I was 18 at the time we met, and he was 28. So I didn’t really get to experience many things that other people experience before getting into a relationship. Like dating and just doing different things as a single person.

“I feel like I kind of grew up and matured as part of someone else and not as my own person. At some point I realized, I don’t really love myself. I needed to learn to do that. So after about 7 1/2 years together, we split.

“It wasn’t a bad breakup. It was somewhat of a mutual agreement. We still remained friends. So close to where I could call him if I was having a rough time with my new relationship. And vice versa, he could call me. It was always respectful. It was never ‘I miss you’s’ and all that.

“He ended up splitting with his partner. My split came a few months later. Then at some point it was like, ‘Do you ever miss us?’ And it was one of those ‘I never stopped thinking about you’ kind of things.

“So after a little over two years apart, we gave it another shot. I don’t want to say it’s perfect, because nobody’s perfect. But it’s been damn near perfect ever since. The most that we ever argue about is who cheated at the video game.

“If we ever have an instance where we don’t see eye to eye, we stop right then and there, and we talk about it. We take time to understand each other. I think our willingness to see the other person’s point of view and to compromise is something that all relationships should have.

“I’m very, very happy that we’re back together. I’m in a happy place right now. We’re aiming to get married next July. I feel like it’s a confirmation that this time, it’s really forever.”

— Chris Champion (with Timothy Agar)

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• Patti LaBelle fan enjoys experience of a lifetime

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“My husband [Jack Spurlock] passed away a few years ago. He had Parkinson’s.

“It started with tremors in his hands. He would go to drink his coffee, and he would shake a little bit. He’d have to hold the cup with two hands. We took him to a neurologist, and he told us to watch it. So we did that for about six months. Then he began to experience weakness to where he couldn’t hold the coffee cup. For about three years, it didn’t progress very badly. Then the last year, it progressed very quickly.

“He had difficulty walking. He would forget things. He would kind of see things that were not there. It was very concerning. The medicine they finally put him on was a real sedative, and it just made him sleep all the time. So he didn’t like taking it. Watching someone you love deteriorate like that is very difficult.

“My husband was a real man’s man, and he was very active. He used to work at Rohm and Haas, and he retired from there. He was a Harris County deputy reserve sheriff for 11 1/2 years. He had several side businesses. Plus, he pastored at a church in Pasadena.

“We were married 20 years. It was the second marriage for both of us. I went to work for Harris County in their transportation department, and I was in Port Arthur when he died. I couldn’t reach him on the phone. My son did a welfare check on him. He was at home. It was sudden. They told me he died of a heart attack, but I’ve never really been sure.

“What I miss most are the times we spent in the Bible, and our travel. Being a widow was a new chapter in my life. There have been lots of firsts without him. It’s tough, but you get through it. I haven’t lost him. I know where he’s at.”

— Diane Spurlock

Diane enjoys women’s ministry. “Having been a single mom for nine years and then remarrying, I’ve experienced a lot of things in life that I can call on to help them. It’s very rewarding.”

The post ‘Being a widow was a new chapter in my life’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I grew up in a household where I never saw affection. Well, I saw it from one individual, the female, but not from the male. He was always too macho.

“It was a physically abusive environment. Not toward me, but the female. When I saw the abuse, it made me sad. You hear about kids stepping in, and the person stops. Or sometimes they get smacked around, too. I was too afraid to do anything. I only got hit once. But that’s all it took to wise up.

“As I got older, I got into a lot of fights. I was really wild in my teens. I was mischievous, or maybe just foolish.

“When I was 22, I met the woman who would become my wife. We started going out, and I fell in love with her. I told her I was going to make her fall in love with me. And I accomplished that. We were together for almost 20 years, married for 12. We had two kids together.

“I married her because I cared for her and loved her. But it never felt quite right inside. It was great in the beginning. But I had so much stuff bottled up from my past that I began pushing her away.

“Growing up, I didn’t see people in my family going to therapy or marriage counseling. I had a lot of confusion about how a man should treat a woman, and how to be in a relationship.

“After she left me, after our divorce, I was really sad. She found someone else and remarried. I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love again. I did, but it didn’t work out.

“Before we got married, my ex-wife and I took a class through the Catholic church. One thing the priest said was, ‘Don’t let the sun set on your anger.’ But a lot of times while we were married, I would go to bed angry. It was aimed toward my wife, but it wasn’t her fault. It was the different things I experienced growing up that were coming through. I regret my actions, and I’ve apologized to her.

“When I was a kid, I had this vision. It was of an old man, and he looked real sad. I thought that was going to be me in the future, all alone, never married, never having kids. I ended up doing both those things. And I love my kids. While it may not all have turned out as perfect as I wanted, it’s still something.”

Related:

• ‘What’s a beautiful memory for you was a nightmare for me’

The post ‘I had a lot of confusion about how a man should treat a woman’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“Tim and I went with my brother to tour NASA. You get on the little tram, and it lets you off to look at stuff in the different buildings. Then you catch the next tram to continue the tour. But when the next tram came, there were no seats. So we waited for the one after that, and there were only two seats available. Tim said, ‘Y’all get on, and I’ll catch the next one.’

“When we pulled up to the main building, they announced, ‘Please stay seated, and keep your hands and feet inside the tram until we come to a complete stop.’ And all of a sudden I hear, ‘Stacey, will you marry me?’

“Without my knowing it, Tim had talked to the guy doing the speaking and asked if he could borrow the microphone. The guy asked why, and Tim said, ‘Because I want to propose to my girlfriend.’

“When I heard him proposing to me in front of all those people, I screamed and ran toward him in the back of the tram. He was in the very last seat. Everybody cheered and laughed. It was awesome.

“After the tour, we drove up to Dallas to see my mom. Tim wanted to give me my ring in front of her. And he asked my dad for my hand in marriage. You don’t know how special that was.

“My mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in July 1993, and she died three months later. Like any couple, we’ve had our share of bumps in the road. But we’ve been married for 27 years now. We’re best friends. I don’t know where I’d be without him.”

— Stacey Lundberg Stiff

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• Husband ‘my rock’ through surgery, stroke

The post Surprise proposal leads to long marriage appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We’re a combined family. He has seven kids from his previous marriage and I have two. I also have custody of my two grandkids, so together we have 11. Eight of them live at home.

“After being off almost a whole year, we’re both blessed to be working now. I mean, we’re still struggling. Because of 2020, I think lots of people are going to be struggling for a while. We’re slowly creeping back up to the surface. Right now, we’re trying to hang on to our home.

“Like everyone else, we had some issues during the winter storm. We were without power for two days. So we lit a bonfire in our firepit, and the neighbors came over. We sat outside around the fire and talked. We lit candles. The kids played hide and seek in the dark. Our fireplace has gas, so that really helped. We turned it on, and all the kids slept in the living room to stay warm.

“We were without water for five days. So we were going to our neighbor’s house to shower, and we were using her pool to flush the toilets. She lives by herself, and she didn’t know how to light her fireplace. So we did that for her, and we helped flush her toilets and stuff. We were going back and forth a lot, helping each other. Our neighborhood is pretty great that way.

“My husband, Michael, isn’t a plumber, but he’s pretty handy. I always pick at him because it seems like he hoards stuff in the garage. But it actually came in handy this time. He was able to help out several people in our community with their plumbing issues, including a neighbor who’s a veteran. Seeing him come home from work at 6 p.m., suiting up and helping people without his hand out asking for something in return, I literally fell in love with him all over again.”

— Shannon Moore

Shannon and Michael got married on Nov. 16, 2019. They have yet to take their honeymoon cruise, which has been canceled three times due to the pandemic.

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