Whitehall Happiness Corner: Owen David Shank

OWEN DAVID SHANK

St. Patty's Day 2023 dawned bright and clear. For a change, the ever-present wind was fairly calm as well. This was also the day my dad, Owen David Shank (who went by David) decided to finally leave this present life. Some would say that he graduated to the heavenly realms.

Along with my mother, his wife of almost 60 years, Dad had recently moved to Winter Garden, Florida, roughly six months ago. One of my sisters and her husband converted one end of their house into a kind of mother-in-law's apartment for them. They had previously lived in Virginia, where I grew up.

My earliest memory of Dad was when he worked at the local Honda shop (owned by his cousin) where his company vehicle was an old BMW motorcycle; you know, the ones with the big faring on the front?! I remember getting to ride with him on that old machine at least once or twice.

After that, over the many long years, Dad did anything from selling chicken and turkey house equipment to toppers for those cute little VW trucks, to waste oil heaters. He sold Conklin in the 80s and even did a bit of OTR trucking. Speaking of trucking, we also truck-farmed quite a few acres of tomatoes (2,000 plants one year) to sell to local grocery stores.

Long story short, my father had a long and hard, but good life! He provided well for his children (all 12 of them) and even after his experience with truck farming, still enjoyed planting at least an acre of garden pretty much every year until old age caught up to him.

Dad made it to 80 years of age, which was appropriate, as he was very religious. He believed strongly in the Life After and so now rests in the Arms of his Dear Lord! Whatever I or anyone else may choose to believe or how we live our lives, we know that Owen David Shank led a very blessed Life. I choose to celebrate that Life, as well as whatever Life might be waiting for him!

- Charles Haddon Shank