Honoring Shanna Butler's Beautiful Spirit

Shanna Renee Butler had the sweetest soul. She loved to laugh, sing, and dance. Her favorite football teams were the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Minnesota Vikings. Shanna struggled her whole life with mental illness and developmental disabilities, Yet this did not stop her from being kind. She loved everyone she met and was always so welcoming to new people. She had just recently moved into a new group home and was ecstatic about it. She would nonstop talk about making sure she would get her favorite iced coffee so she had enough energy to decorate that room like her life depended on it. And she did.

Last year things started to change. She was losing weight rapidly, becoming lethargic and mentally declining. In May of 2024, Shanna was in the hospital on a ventilator for six days and she recovered. A few months later she was hospitalized again.

On Monday, January 27th Shanna went to the hospital lethargic and was unable to speak. She couldn't eat and was given a feeding tube.

On Wednesday, February 5th Shanna was released from the hospital for the very last time.

On Friday morning Shanna passed away in her sleep.

We don't know why the kindest souls struggle the most, but Shanna believed she would be in heaven with her loved ones who had passed before her and now she is.

Shanna was an amazing aunt to her nephew Riely and niece Emma. She would ask Emma to do her hair and makeup every time she saw her and she did. Shanna loved her nephew and niece like they were her own.

Shanna's world was anything but small. The love of everyone around her filled her spirit.

Her sisters Elizabeth Butler and Rebecca White were her Best friends. They would dance to the song " Through the Grapevine" it was a sister thing.

Her mother Lola Butler never stopped fighting for her.

Shanna was baptized by her father Gary Butler when she was nine years old and rebaptized in December of 2024 by her paster. She asked her mother Lola Butler "Did you hear the angels sing "

On this day Shanna gave her life to Jesus

and on Friday Jesus took her home.

Now she is an angel singing with the Lord.

Shanna Banana you will live in our hearts forever.

-Love, family

Shanna did not have any life insurance. All donations will go to pay for services and loss of wages.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.