Shania: Shahdon was living his father's dream

At his fu­ner­al ser­vice on Thurs­day at the Na­pari­ma Bowl in San Fer­nan­do Shah­don was re­mem­bered as an ex­treme tal­ent who loved his fam­i­ly but stayed hum­ble in spite of all his achieve­ments in the sport.

His younger sis­ter Sha­nia said her broth­er was liv­ing the life-long dream of his fa­ther who nur­tured him in the sport, be­fore he passed away in No­vem­ber of 2002, leav­ing his wife Lana (Shah­don's moth­er) and his broth­er to shoul­der the re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

Sha­nia re­mem­bered be­ing among Shah­don's sib­lings and cousins who he used as prac­tice part­ners dur­ing his child­hood days be­fore his tal­ent was quick­ly recog­nised at San Fer­nan­do Boys Gov­ern­ment School, and then at Na­pari­ma Col­lege where he helped in guid­ing the team to an In­ter­Col ti­tle.

At a ser­vice which was packed to ca­pac­i­ty with mem­bers of his W Con­nec­tion foot­ball club, mem­bers of the T&T team and oth­er dig­ni­taries, Sha­nia said her broth­er went on to rep­re­sent the coun­try at every youth lev­el, be­fore pro­gress­ing to the se­nior na­tion­al team where he scored many goals.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nior Re­grel­lo, who filled in for Min­is­ter of Sports and Youth Af­fairs Sham­fa Cud­joe, who iron­i­cal­ly could not be there be­cause of a death in her fam­i­ly, said though he did not know Shah­don per­son­al­ly, videos im­ages of his life showed he was ready for his pass­ing, due to the peo­ple whose lives he had touched, his com­mit­ment to God, and his nexus to fam­i­ly and friends.

Be­cause of his love for God, Win­ches­ter who was nick­named 'Jep' car­ried a bible his moth­er had bought for him, any­time he trav­elled abroad. Re­grel­lo called for his mem­o­ry to live on, say­ing there are not too many foot­ballers who can say they scored a goal against CON­CA­CAF gi­ants Mex­i­co.

Mean­while, William Wal­lace, pres­i­dent of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion said Shah­don's trag­ic pass­ing was proof that to­mor­row is not promised to us. He not­ed the one thing he learned about Shah­don life, was hu­mil­i­ty. " If it's one thing we can learn from Shah­don's life is hu­mil­i­ty, and for all of us who are charged with gov­ern­ing foot­ball or even to rep­re­sent the coun­try, do what you have to do but re­main hum­ble."

A tear­ful Re­nee John-Williams, the W Con­nec­tion CEO said Shah­don was their spoiled child at the club and any­thing he asked for, the pres­i­dent would do his best to give it to him, such was his tal­ent and per­son­al­i­ty.

She de­scribed him as past, present and fu­ture at the Pro League gi­ants, whose death over the past two weeks has seen ques­tion the Almighty God, though they were taught nev­er to do so.

SOURCE: T&T Guardian