Shawn Eric Pollard - Online Memorial Website

It was a beautiful day,Monday,April 27th,1970.Springtime in the suburb town of Carmichael,California..near Sacramento.I had been taking walks with Terry in anticipation of getting the labor pains started,and so we walked,and walked,and walked..Our new baby had been due on the 24th of April and so we had sent Tom ,our oldest son[age 3]and Joey,our second son [who had had his 1st birthday just the day before April 26th],to be with my mom and dad and Terry's folks as well,who lived in Oregon, while we awaited the arrival of this, our third baby.

The previous year had been a busy one with the arrival of Joey and subsequent moves to Southern California and then to the central valley just the month before Shawn was born.We had not told Terry's folks,nor mine that we were expecting a third child until just that month before he was due.I had not had an ultra sound so we didn't know for sure that we were carrying our third son but in my heart I always felt as though it would be another son and so when labor pains finally began we hurried excitedly to the hospital as Joey had come very quickly into this world and I did not want to be at home,or worse yet in the car and deliver this third baby!My labor pains began  around 8:30pm Monday evening and ended at precisely 10:17pm when Shawn poked his head through..so once again I delivered extremely quickly but not without some travail.

Shawn arrived all red faced,wiggly and with a loud wail as though to protest from the beginning to" Look out world,here I come!"Even in his very first newborn picture when he was minutes old, he has a defiant look on his face, with his tiny fist curled and looking for trouble.Well needless to say with two older brothers he needed that fighting spirit to see him through his journey of life.

Needless to say I fell in love for a fourth time with this tiny bundle of energy.His big blue eyes would follow me around as I fed him and bathed him.He was born with a bit of reddish brown hair that later turned into a white cotton ball of fluff! And so life began there in Carmichael and then just as quick as that we moved to Medford,Oregon where his grandparents and cousins lived and where Terry and I had met and married...but life had many adventures waiting for Shawn and his story has much left to tell.

 

 

Born in California Carmichael on April 27, 1970.

We had just celebrated Joey's second and Shawn's first birthday in April and by May things weren't going very well financially so we moved to Oklahoma!My parents had made the move just prior to us so we ended up in Oklahoma City...well..humidity was something neither Terry or I liked very well and though Terry did enjoy those mighty thunderstorms and tornado warnings and all, come September the same year we moved to Portland,Oregon.That was quite a trip! We had fun and we stopped for the night in Salt Lake City,Utah to spend the night in the motel.While Terry rushed off to get us some food I put Tom in the shower and Shawn on the bed to change his diaper...well Tom broke a glass in the shower and cut his foot and while I was attending to that Joey got into the luggage and got Terry's razor and was"shaving"his face and cut his chin!Terry returned within just a few minutes to a room  of crying kids and blood streaming from two kids while Shawn thankfully,had fallen asleep peacefully on the bed.The cuts were not serious and so we arrived eventually within a day or so in Portland where Terry went to work immediately.We rented an apartment that had a basement room that we made into a play room for the kids and settled into life with three bouncing,healthy boys.Did they ever have fun.Tom still recalls the Big Wheel he rode around and around that basement while Joey inched along on his green"Inchworm"riding toy.From there we moved to Vancouver ,Washington where Tom began kindergarten.He had received a bike that Joey [at age 3]decided he could ride also!It wasn't too many weeks before Shawn decided he could do that also.Always spurred on by his older brothers feats and defeats! Shawn had a soft spot for animals and especially dogs and bunny rabbits,several of which he had over his lifetime.He had both a lop eared bunny and a dog named Midnight.Another favorite of his was Siskiyou,his faithful dog later on in life.

September 1975..Shawn begins kindergarten at Wilcox Elementary near 72nd Avenue in Portland,Oregon.Shawn and his brothers also attended West Gresham Elementary after we had moved out to a subdivision called Binford Farms.There they spent many,many hours playing across the street in an area they and their neighborhood friends dubbed "The Wilderness".It was a great place for kids to play and use their imaginations which they had an extraordinary capacity to do.They filmed their on version of Star Wars which had first came out the year we moved there.The next door neighbor girl was Princess Leia and they had their Light Sabers and truly had a ball playing along the creek and near the Pond.They shared their memories of that place for many years to come.

Late summer of 1979 we decided to move back to Medford,Oregon.We first enrolled the boys in Christian School but before the year was through we ended up putting Joey and Shawn back into public school at Phoenix Elementary and Tom started Talent Jr.High the next year.

Shawn was introduced to a popular boy in class also named Shawn and immediately became a popular kid in the school.He was a 4th grader at the time and stayed with the same kids throughout his school days..later on in Jr.High and High school Shawn was not only popular with his friends but was quite popular with the girls as well.Shawn was a social butterfly when it came to school..he definitely preferred spending time writing notes in class or whispering back and forth to doing schoolwork and paying attention in class.He was easily bored and distracted easily and so by high school days he wasn't flourishing as well as he was capable.He did participate in sports in Jr High and played basketball,baseball,football and went out for track .He wrestled and competed  in soccer as well.If I was picking a sport that Shawn excelled at I would say it would have to be soccer.He had started soccer while we lived in Vancouver and while it was not offered in the grade school or Jr.High levels in public school at that time by the time he started high school they had a soccer program underway at Phoenix High and Shawn enjoyed playing on the team and his freshman  year played with his oldest brother Tom on the team.

It seems so hard to try and cram a lifetime into a few words on a page.I am so thankful that the summer between his 8th and 9th grades Shawn decided he wanted to go to Teen Camp for the Assembly of God church we were attending.Shawn came home full of enthusiasm because he had given his heart to God and had been baptized in the Holy Spirit.This was a new and exciting experience with him and he was full of questions and would just begin to speak in tongues ..he wasn't shy about sharing that experience with his friends either.It is that experience that gives me confidence in knowing God had sealed him forever as His own Child and would be drawing Shawn to Him the rest of his life.

1986

Shawn is a Sophomore now,Joey a Junior and Tom has joined the Army and came home on leave from his training before he was to be shipped off to Germany.I am sure they had a grand time on Tom's leave time.I know on the day Tom was to leave to go back to Texas I snapped the picture of the three of them goofing off.What a photo.I love it!Shawn is busy with a social life even though he is too young to drive.Joey gets his drivers license and takes them to school...in an ugly little red Volkswagen hatchback we had bought from Terry's mom...not too pretty but very dependable..and cheap!Shawn is starting to date and hang out with his friends and sometimes skips coming home...not too happy in school but getting by.Already at 14 he had taken the family car sneaking it out after we were in bed and wrecked it on an icy Pioneer Rd with a couple of girls he had picked up and took "joy riding".Fortunately for him,the girls and us no one was seriously injured!.By 1987 he was a Junior and Joey's Senior year they were having a good time at a teen dance club called Fat City,when Shawn and another guy bumped one another while dancing..words escalated into a fight with the result of Shawn being stabbed and very nearly losing his life at that time.This was a really difficult time period in Shawn's life.He was 17,missing school and had to wear a colostomy bag for 2 1/2 months.A thing which he despised of course[who wouldn't at 17]but it did save his life.Though it wasn't much fun for him for several months while he fully recuperated Shawn was growing more and more restless and bored with school and with the time he had missed in the Spring of 87..it was hard to get him back on track.He was in and out and spending increasingly more time away from school than in.

 

Shawn finally quit school and ended up getting his GED.It is 1987 and Joey's last year of school.Shawn has met Tanya Traister and spends a lot of time at the Wagner Creek Rd farm and at Tanya's place on Rapp Road in Talent.He and Tanya attend both years of her Junior and Senior prom and so the picture I post here is of the Junior Prom.Joey goes into Marine Boot Camp late Fall of 87 and Shawn is the only one at home now..when he is home!

When Joey graduates from Boot Camp we decide to all go to San Diego for the graduation,so we all pile into one car..Joey's girlfriend and future wife, Amy,Terry and I ,Shawn and Tanya,and my sister's son Dave who was about 12..we were so cramped..we had a flat tire on the way down and on the way back we dropped Shawn off in Bakersfield[because we had picked up Joey by now and were really cramped!],and he took a bus the rest of the way home.We all had fun and went to Disneyland and had a ball though and made memories to last a lifetime!

We had such fun on that trip even though we were cramped .Joey and Amy and Shawn and Tanya did their thing at Disneyland while we showed David around..when we dropped Shawn at the bus station in Bakersfield it gave Tanya,Joey and Amy a bit more room in that back seat!The picture of Shawn at Joey's graduation shows the pride Shawn had for his brother being a tough Marine!

Shawn begin working at Tanya's moms farm in Talent and he and Tanya were becoming more serious about their relationship.They moved to Eugene where Tanya now became Davi[her middle name].She was going to the University of Oregon.It took most of us a long time to call her Davi and Joey still has trouble calling her that to this day!They decided in 1992 I believe it was to take a trip to Europe.Shawn was also working for a guy during the summer months selling candy and iced drinks at fairs and he saved his money and they left for Europe on a thin budget! I would wire money to Shawn on a as needed basis.They went all over the place.As I recall Shawn definitely had his favorites countries and those he disliked as well but he told me his favorite was Ireland..the home of his ancestors[some of them anyway]My maiden name is Griffin and the Griffin's originated in Killarney County,Ireland and Shawn visited there and loved it and the people and they loved him..with an Irish name like Shawn how could they not?Just before he was to return home he had a bad experience in Amsterdam but survived and lived to tell the story!

My dates may be a bit skewed on Shawn and Davi's trip to Europe but I know she found out she was pregnant just before they left and so along with Amy & Joey expecting their first child in May ,Shawn and Davi are now looking forward to their first child in August.After their return from Europe they decide to start a "Coffee Cart"..this is back before the days of the drive through coffee stands that proliferate in the Medford area now.There's was a first and they had great fun in getting started.Cafe Zed was born and Shawn had a ball building it from the ground up.He and Tom had made a fateful trip to Alaska a few years before where they worked on an Alaska Crab boat where their job was to cut off the legs of the great Alaska King Crab as the fisherman hauled them aboard.They were out in the middle of the Aleution Islands and Tom gets sick..and sicker and sicker yet so they are dropped by helicopter on an Island where somehow they arrange to get to the mainland and hitchhike and finally hop a plane for home..what a story they had to tell!Although they already enjoyed fishing something clicked with those two and they begin to fish!And fish.And fish.We have countless photos of the many trout,salmon and steelhead they caught.They often invited their Dad and brother Joey along on these trips and what fun they all had.I still never tire of hearing their stories about Shawn's impatience or how he pulled them out of a hole ..etc.Shawn developed a love for fishing that lasted the rest of his life! He decided that that was his life's calling..to become a River Guide..and become a River Guide he did! This followed the most exciting event of his life to date ..that of the birth of his son Jorrin..August 13th,just 11 weeks after Joey's son Alex was born Davi went into labor and finally after much much hard work gave birth to a big strapping beautiful blue eyed baby boy!I will never ever forget the look on Shawn's face when he brought that baby out of the delivery room and took him down to be weighed and measured and washed and cleaned! He had been with Davi every minute,holding her hand,wiping her brow and helping her push..and was finally reduced to tears and a blubbering snotty mess when Jorrin finally made his appearance! With snot dripping from his nose and tears streaming down his face he said "Mom ,it's a boy!" I cry even now as I recall the proud look on his face and the awe in his voice as he spoke those words."I have a son!".I rushed down the hall with him as he carried his infant son and when they weighed him in at 9 lbs and 14 ounces..I thought Shawn would burst from the pride.And so my baby had become a father! They named him Jorrin Rye.What a beautiful baby he was and a grandson he is! Jorrin's pictures are posted in other places on this website and you can tell he has outgrown his father by the age of 12 he is taller than Shawn ever got!

I tell this event on the day that would have been your 40th birthday Shawn.April 27th,20120.
Trueda Pearl Pollard is born-your daughter!How excited once again you were..you wanted a girl so badly and didn't think you would have one and when she was born once again you were so proud!You have every reason to be proud today.Jorrin is now 16 and beginning college in the fall.Such a smart young man..scored perfectly on his math college scores!Trueda is so outgoing,friend to many and smart in her own right..she gets great grades in school!She will be a Jr.High School girl this fall..so hard to believe.Time can speed swiftly by in so many ways and in others it seems to have stood still.Had Sushi with them last evening..a celebration of Jorrin's great grades and in your honor as well Shawn..40 years old today you would have been.I still think of Roberts Flack's old song.."The first time ever I saw your face".....those big baby blues staring so intently into my own eyes!
Your daughter Trueda interviewed Grampa Sam regarding his experience in World War 2 for her social studies class.Video taped it.he told all about the Bismarck Sea sinking after Japanese Kamakaze planes hit her on Feb 21st,1945.All the guys around him died and yet he survived and her words to him were"I'm so glad you survived-my dad wouldn't have been here and neither would I!"