Serendipity

Similar to what Shawn's Lasagna looked like! I know that I may have mentioned this before, but Shawn (Campbell) is my oldest child, and having him in prison for a crime I know he did not commit has tore me to pieces. Being able to spend time with him is truly wonderful, I miss him so much. On Monday, once we got all of the groceries put away, it was lunch time and Shawn fixed us these huge, fully loaded sandwiches. On each was sliced ham, salami, pepperoni, sliced onion, lettuce, mayo and Italian dressing...with a side of chips. For our drinks: Mountain Dew and Pepsi. (I don't do Dew!) That afternoon, he made a cherry cheesecake, that would be our desert for the next two nights.  Since the FRP program doesn't provide everything  we might need to make food with, Shawn made this in a frying pan! It worked!  LOL For supper, we did Taco salad...with all the trimmings. Hamburger, onions, lettuce, diced tomatoes, black olives, sliced green and...

One of the guard towers that watched over us Last Monday was my sign-in day to have the FRP (Family Reunion Program) visit with my son, but to our surprise, when we got up that morning and watched it turn daylight, this is what we saw: Wet snow icing the trees... Limited visibility  Torture on the green leaves! Heavy snow weighing pine branches down And more snow fell... We received about 3 to 4 inches total by the time the storm passed. However, in watching the traffic pass on the highway (which we can see from my house), traffic was moving right along, which meant that the roads had been kept clear. Good! We loaded the car and off we went on the trip to the prison. Although the roads weren't bad overall...we did encounter a spot or two on the highway that was a bit ify: snow still coming down hard enough that visibility wasn't all that good Here...it was trying to really come down and blow at the same time We made it to the priso...

Right from the beginning, Shawn's arrest and then sentencing has been a hard pill for me to swallow. No mother wishes to see a child in prison, but when it happens...what then? For me, it couldn't have come at a worst time.  I was still deep in the grip of my breakdown, still not able to function mentally and emotionally...and I know that I wept a lot during this time.  I couldn't believe that my son, a big, huggable teddy bear that everyone loved, could do something so terrible.  It just didn't fit. Shawn's case was high profile, this was a big deal in a county that is one of the biggest in New York, and as much as I wanted to be there for my son...I couldn't.  I couldn't make myself go to the court hearings, I didn't want to be seen by the public or in the media...as I said, I was having a very hard time coping. A war raged inside of me then too...unending questions, uncertainties, blaming myself, even though I did my best to bring my son  up righ...

Shawn was born July 13, 1977, weighing 4 lbs., 13 oz.  He was a good baby...and we really didn't have many problems with his health through the years. He was the typical all American boy...dirty hands, ripped knees in his jeans, always looking at things with the eyes of a curious child.  He played hard and slept hard! He loved cars and trucks...loved going to stock car races too.  He's always had a fascination with vehicles and how they run...and by the time he was 13-14, he rebuilt a car engine with little help from anyone else!     He honestly never really liked school, although when he applied himself, he received high grades.  In many respects, I think school bored him.     Even as a child, he had a very charismatic personality...he loved people and people loved him! Here...even on a cold day...he had to be outside...looking at rocks and picking up the pretty ones! He's always loved working with his h...

Shawn Campbell, my son who is in the process of trying to find justice and reverse a murder charge that he did not commit, has asked me to write up this little blog with a request. Anyone interested in writing him for more information about his case, to offer their encouragement, can contact him at:    Shawn Campbell 05B0846 Wende Correctional Facility P. O. Box 1187 Alden, NY 14004-1187   He would love to hear your thoughts and comments ! Thanks!

On January 16, 2008 I published my first blog, titled “ The Handyman...Who Is He? ”. What I didn’t say then, but what might be intuited was that this story was about someone close to me, but I didn’t say…didn’t want to admit …it was my oldest son. When I wrote that entry, I was still angry…mostly because of the fact that it was my son in prison, and I was having a extremely hard time dealing with that. Even back then (and now), I hated the term 'handyman' because the local media had really played up that term to describe my son...linking that term so that it equated to "murderer".  Thankfully, for the most part, the media has dropped the 'handyman' when they talk about him and his case, which has some new developments . (2 separate links.) My son was accused of murdering Ronda Bilby at her home in what the police and the District Attorney referred to as a "botched robbery-gone wrong".  All the evidence was circumstantial, there was no blood f...