By Khalida Sarwari
On Tuesday morning, as Ann Shaw packed her bags for Hollidaysburg, Pa., she mulled over the painful thought of spending yet another summer without her granddaughter, Shea, doing the things they loved together. The doting grandmother arrived in Campbell 3½ weeks ago to see Shea, but leaving seemed to be getting harder every time.
“I hate it that I’m not close to her,” said Shaw. “It’s not as easy as it was before not to see her as frequently as I did.”
Nearly a year and a half has passed since Shea was struck by an SUV while walking across a street in the area of Bascom and Camden avenues, and the Los Gatos High School student remains in a coma with a severe brain injury. She is fed through a tube in her stomach, spends about eight hours a day in a wheelchair and undergoes regular physical therapy sessions “to keep her from atrophying,” said her grandmother.
Since she saw her last in September, Shea seems more alert, Ann Shaw said. She seems to track more with her one eye, makes more expressions and appears to be responding to pain more than before, Shaw said. Nevertheless, she is unable to perform basic functions like eating on her own and speaking.
“Sometimes when you talk to her she’ll make a noise like she’s trying to speak, but she can’t,” Shaw said, her voice breaking.
On Sunday, Shea turned 17. In celebration, and to raise funds for her costly medical expenses, her father, Robbie Shaw, threw a barbecue fundraiser at the San Jose Woman’s Club, attended by dozens of Shea’s family and friends.
“It was a gigantic ordeal, but it was absolutely beautiful,” said Michelle Bowen, Shaw’s fiance. “Everything looked so pretty. Shea would like it that way.”
Bowen credited the event’s success to the volunteers who helped the family organize the fundraiser.
“Out of this tragedy we realized how many good people there are in the world,” said Ann Shaw.
Though the road to recovery is long and the driver of the SUV that struck Shea early in the morning on Jan. 8, 2011, remains at large, the family continues to be hopeful about Shea’s future.
“We’re willing to have her just be able to say hello and smile,” Bowen said tearfully. “We just want Shea back.”
This summer, like the last, won’t be the same for Ann Shaw. She’ll see Shea, but in Campbell and not in Hollidaysburg, where Shea and her older brother Dane spent a month to six weeks every summer watching movies and going fishing with their grandfather.
“I live out in the country, and they love that,” Shaw said.
Anyone interested in donating to the Shaw family can do so by visiting www.angelsforshea.com or contributing to the Shea Shaw Donation Fund at any Wells Fargo Bank.
There will also be a “Cut-A-Thon” fundraising event at the KRUSH Hair Salon in Los Gatos on May 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The cost is $40 for women and $20 for men and children. Proceeds will be used to purchase a $1,700 therapeutic chair to assist Shea with standing, sitting and lying down.
