It has been decades since Shannon Lewis died after a community bound itself together as it had never done before.
And the community really hasn’t really done so since, certainly not on the same scale.
I thought it might be a good time for newcomers to learn about it and for old timers to sort of pat themselves on the back. Here’s the story, as I remembered it.
Shannon Lewis was a young girl whose family had been told that she needed a new heart and lung transplant. The cost of such a procedure was far beyond the family’s ability to afford — or even consider — until a local citizens group formed. Beginning in the Winlock area, the group gathered under the name of “The Shannon Lewis Heart Fund.”
Countless attempts to gather funds for Shannon’s operation were launched, from yard sales to dinners and dances. A unique contribution came from two KELA employees — Jim Cook and Russ Mohney — who pushed a wheelbarrow from the radio station all the way to Winlock, collecting gifts in it as they went.
Just about everyone became involved with — or certainly were aware of — the effort and joined in.
The heart fund rose to nearly an astonishing $300,000. But that still wasn’t enough. And then it was learned that a grant was offered that would pay for the operation. Shannon would get her new heart. Next came months of literally waiting by the phone for the call that would mean a replacement had become available.
The call came in early December 1988. Shannon and her mother, Barbara, were immediately flown to California. The procedure took place at Stanford University Hospital and — after the established period of monitoring — they came home.
Shannon had her heart.
My own connection with Shannon was peripheral at best. But it was through the fact that throughout her ordeal she had kept up her school studies with the help of her tutor, Donna Dodson, who was engaged to be soon married to my son, Mathew. And that’s how I met Shannon and knew her for such a short time. Donna asked Shannon to be her maid of honor and I can’t describe how thrilled and excited she was about that!
First, though, she merely had to report back to the hospital for a routine checkup. It was there that her new heart failed as — I was told — she was merely walking down a hall for the procedure.
She passed away on March 14, 1990, only five days before the anticipated wedding. I doubt that there were very many Lewis County residents who didn’t mourn along with her family, but the story doesn’t quite end just there.
Donations to the Shannon Lewis Heart Fund continued to be received for a while and by the time all the bills were paid, the directors of what was a nonprofit fund decided that the remaining money should be used to help other Lewis County residents cope with medical expenses.
Applications were asked for and filled after an evaluation of each request.
I haven’t verified this, but I’m assuming that after all this time that fund probably no longer exists.
But the memory will always be with those of us who lived here at the time and who felt the loss. The community became neighbors, bypassing politics and egos. Our actions were based on human compassion, informed by medical facts. What a contrast to today’s world of disinformation and self interest.
Any chance we can change back again?
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Bill Moeller is a former entertainer, mayor, bookstore owner, city council member, paratrooper and pilot living in Centralia. He can be reached at bookmaven321@comcast.net.
