Vince's Journey

Our parish, St. Susanna in Mason, suffered a tremendous loss last Friday when our Pastor, Fr. Dan Shuh, passed away following an 18 month battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS).

Fr. Dan was truly a unique priest. He was ordained close to five years ago after spending many years working as a Kroger store manager. He was previously married (he lost his wife to cancer in 2001), a father of 2 and a grandfather of 6 - several years ago he actually had the joy of baptising one of his grandchildren; I'm sure that doesn't happen everyday.

Fr. Dan was also a big man. I wouldn't want to guess how much he weighed at his peak but I'm sure he would be the first to admit that he could stand to lose a few pounds. That was one of Fr. Dan's most endearing attributes; he didn't take himself too seriously - he could laugh at himself and enjoyed it even more when others laughed along with him. Many of his homilies were filled with humor but they also were extremely thought provoking. He was also great at spinning a tale - I'll never forget his story a few years ago about a ski trip he had recently taken. Imagining Fr. Dan on skis was a funny enough picture but relating how a wipeout had nearly caused an avalanche on the slope had the entire congregation, as he text messaging generation would put it, LOLing (laughing out loud). And he delivered the perfect punch line when he said a teenaged skiier going up the lift yelled down to him..."Awesome wipeout, dude!" I doubt the young man realized he was yelling down at a priest.

ALS is a horrible disease. It robs the body of all muscle use while the mind remains as sharp as ever; the person essentially becomes a prisoner of his/her own body. Over the past 18 months we watched this big, teddy bear of a man dwindle down to skin and bones. He spent a good portion of the last year confined to a wheelchair and his voice had been reduced to an inaudible whisper. It truly broke my heart to watch this horrible disease take control of Fr. Dan's body. I often questioned why God would allow something like this to happen to such a wonderful man. Fr. Dan, on the other hand, faced this challenge with grace, dignity and the quality that I mentioned above and will always remember him for; humor. There are 3,200 families at St. Susanna and like a loving father should do; Fr. Dan comforted us throughout his illness. He was a strong man of tremendous faith and fully accepting of the plan God had for him.

In September Fr. Dan realized he was no longer able to handle many of his duties as Pastor and made the difficult decision to take a lesser role. He wrote a letter to the entire St. Susanna community and ended it with the following...

"As you can see, no one has given up hope for a miracle. I have not, the Archdiocese has not, and I certainly know that you have not. But God's plan is not always easily understandable. We must have confidence that God's loving plan for all of us has our best interests in mind."

Reading that gave me comfort - it allowed me to be at peace with God's plan for Fr. Dan. He taught us how to enjoy life to the fullest and peacefully accept and understand the journey God had laid out for him. I know he touched many lives at St. Susanna and we are all much richer for having known him. Our parish has lost a wonderful man. May he rest in peace.