About two weeks ago, I got a message from a good friend from a Christian writers’ conference. She’d seen on social media that a mutual friend, Shannon Wine, had suffered a brainstem hemorrhage and the prognosis was very poor. The following day, Shannon was declared brain dead.
Shannon wasn’t a small woman, but she moved like someone gliding on air. While we all met at a writers’ conference, I honestly don’t remember ever reading any of her writing. I do remember her throaty laugh and her “LOVE YA!” at the end of every conversation.
She was fifty when she died, working as a special ed teacher. She loved to laugh, and she loved Jesus. I’m sure she was ready to meet Him in heaven, since she found it so easy to encounter Him in her home state of almost-heaven, West Virginia (pictured
here).
Shannon was an organ donor, and somehow it seems fitting that the first match made was for her heart. It beats on in some lucky soul in Florida.
I try to write a little each month about a friend whose faith inspires me, and I’m sorry I didn’t introduce you to Shannon while she was on earth. I do hope that this month, you’ll say thank you to a friend like Shannon while you still have time.
