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SHELANE'S STORY
Shelane was a strong, energetic, intelligent, and warm woman. She had a hearty, infectious laugh and a bright smile. She was a loving and supportive wife to her husband, Brian, and a devoted mother to her three beautiful daughters, Nadia (7), Sofia (5), and Olivia (2). She spent much of her free time chaperoning their school field trips and volunteering with their Girl Scouts troops. She truly lived for her girls and dedicated a lot of time and energy to making their lives extra special.
Shelane always talked about having four children to round out her family. On Mother’s Day in 2015, she happily announced her pregnancy at a family gathering. She, her girls, and her family were excited! Over the next couple of weeks, Shelane became somewhat stressed and overwhelmed with life in general which was to be expected, being that baby number four was on its way. On May 29, Shelane went in for her routine 12-week check-up and learned that the baby’s heartbeat had suddenly stopped beating. She was heartbroken. That following week she took off work to recover from the D&C procedure and spend the days with her girls - it seemed to boost her spirits. On June 11, Shelane had a routine follow-up with her doctor and was hopeful to get the test results of why she may have lost the baby, but it was inconclusive. That evening Shelane and her sister Sarah took their children to a community pool after school. Sarah acknowledged that she was emotional as they talked about the loss of the baby and the stresses of life and work, but Shelane concluded that she just needed to rest and relax before starting a new position at work in a couple of days.
The morning of June 12th, 2015, was like any other morning, filled with the usual juggling of getting Nadia off to the school bus and taking care of Sofia and Olivia on her day off of work. On that beautiful sunny afternoon, after she made sure all the girls were safely at home and comfortable watching the T.V., she made an irreversible split-minute decision to go into the next room, close the door and end her life. We believe her suicide was the result of a postpartum mood disorder, more specifically, postpartum psychosis. Her sudden death shocked her family, friends, and community, none of whom had heard of postpartum psychosis. If they had, perhaps Shelane would have had the resources to treat this temporary illness.