About Shawn

I felt I needed to write something about my friend Shawn Clanton. Shawn was one of my Hurricane Katrina evacuee clients when I worked for Volunteers of America last year. We worked together for almost a year and became close. Shawn passed away last week from an apparent heart failure. I was deeply saddened by the loss.

Shawn was my success story. Not my success, but the success she achieved after the hurricane took everything from her. She came to me in October of 2006 looking for assistance. She was down in her life, but still smiling. She always was. She was living in Shreveport, La., far from home and friends. She didn’t know anyone in Shreveport and was finding it difficult to find a good job. When she came to me, she had gone as far as she could on her own. Her rent was due, all of her bills were late and she did not have any money left and was in a difficult spot.

I was more than happy to begin working with Shawn. She made it very easy for me to do my job. She listened and paid attention to the things she needed to do to get her life back together. She did not come to me looking for handouts. She was very prideful, but had learned that sometimes you had to swallow that pride is order to survive. But, she still wanted to do it herself as best she could.

During our time working together, after losing everything except the clothes she was wearing when she evacuated to Shreveport, Shawn made tremendous strides in her life. She found a great job with General Motors, she worked hard to manage a budget for herself and get back on top of her bills and, most amazingly, she achieved her Masters in Hospital Management. I was very, very proud of her each and every day. She told me many times how hard it had been for her and what she had to go through, but as I said, every time I saw her, she was smiling.

Through Shawn’s efforts working with me, we were able to rebuild her life. She lost her car to repossession. We got her another one. We worked to apply to FEMA for rental assistance and she received that. She had an outstanding bill of over $10,000 to a local hospital. We applied to the American Red Cross Katrina Assistance fund and we able to pay off the whole bill. Also through this fund, Shawn and I were able to furnish her entire apartment with brand new furniture from Bewley’s (our salesperson Janet was phenomenal as was the store). We even got our picture in the paper for that one!

It was very cute to see Shawn’s face every time we were able to achieve a goal for her. Just a huge smile and she was so thankful. I found myself wanting to work harder for her to help her out. That was the kind of person she was. She could inspire you.

Shawn had worked hard and had rebuilt her life. Things were going very well for her. From what I understand, Shawn, who had a heart condition, did not let her friends know that her conditioned had worsened. Typical of her, wanting to take care of things herself. Unfortunately, it got the best of her this time. I know Shawn is in a better place, a place she wanted to be. I will miss her tremendously. I just wanted to take a moment and remember for the wonderful, spirited person that she was. We love you Shawn.