Shannon Daugherty

"The" Shannon Daugherty - or at least that is how I referred to him in high school. I was certain he didn't even know I existed. Many years later he would tell me that he remembered my best friend pushing me into him in the hallway at school, and following my car as I drove to a friend's house stopping at the edge of her driveway on a motorcycle he was riding to see if I would come over and say hello. Of course, I didn't and he didn't. Later in life when our paths crossed again and we finally did say hello - it felt as if our souls had found who they loved. Shannon was a kind and generous man. He loved God and he loved his family and friends. He demanded a lot from his kids and made up for it by spoiling his grandsons rotten. Shannon saw the world in black and white, right and wrong, and that your word meant something. He loved hard and he fought harder. If you were fortunate enough for him to let you in, you were family and family meant everything. Those who truly knew him, knew he battled demons every day of his life. He battled childhood trauma, he battled addiction, he battled with knowing the balance of how to treat others who saw the world in color and greys. One of Shannon's favorite sayings was "Maybe the journey is to unlearn all the things you were made to be so you could become the person you were meant to be. " He lived as a testimony and wanted others to know it was possible to overcome anything with the Lord. I can say, without a doubt, he spent every day praying that he would wake up tomorrow a better husband, father, Pap, brother, uncle, friend, person than he was that day. And I was truly blessed that YHWH allowed me to walk that journey with him and watch him overcome everything that stood in his way. He made me so proud watching him become the person he was meant to be. <3 Shannon was my soulmate, my beloved, my Superman and I miss him.