Happy Thanksgiving! Nov 28, 2019

Three Gems of Our Family

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, wherever you may be! This is one of the very best times of the year. In some ways even better than Christmas. Here at Thanksgiving the stress of the holiday is less than it will be next month, while the joy and the gratitude abound.

Sisters Maida Gower Shepard and Vicki Gower Johnston

Anacortes, Washington, 1995

I am grateful at this time of the year for all my family. Even those with whom I don't always agree. I am especially grateful for the three senior most members of our family: my mother Maida Shepard, and my two aunts Thelma Shepard Boyd and Vicki Gower Johnston.

All three of them are gems within our larger family. They represent the generation that went before us. Theirs was a time of hard workers and bold dreamers. They lived through some of the darkest times of the 20th century, including the Great Depression and World War II. They are part of what Tom Brokaw famously called "the greatest generation."

My mother Maida Gower Shepard at 95 lives in her home of 40 years, with her daughter Barbara in Anacortes, Washington. My aunt Vicki Gower Johnston lives in a beautiful home/care facility near her daughter Paula in Chandler, Arizona.

2019 - Thelma Shepard Boyd (left) with daughter 

Kim Boyd Clark (right) and granddaughter Amanda Davis

And my aunt Thelma Shepard Boyd recently moved into her own independent living apartment in El Cajon, California, a few blocks from her grandchildren Jeremy and Desiree Ortiz who are very helpful to her. Thelma's daughter Kim and husband Jeff, motor home travelers, are in Virginia for a while with their newest grandchild Cooper and his parents Amanda and Justin.

My Mom and my Aunts represent a combined 264 years of our family's history! They are the present day anchors to our Shepard and Gower history. What a wealth of memories is contained in the lives and hearts of these 3! They experienced our family's movement from Arkansas to Oklahoma and Colorado, to California to Western Washington, and to Kansas, Arizona and elsewhere. And they continue to lead the way in our family lovingly and emotionally. Thanks be to God for the lives of Maida, Vicki and Thelma. They mean more to us than all the thanks we can give. But we thank them anyway, and want them to know they are loved, appreciated and honored during this season of Thanksgiving.
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Steve Shepard