Flowers, Vienna Sausages... And a gravestone

By Courtney Farr

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

A can of Vienna Sausages sits on the base of Shannon Martin’s headstone, surrounded by orange, pink and purple flowers.

Staci Wolfe, Martin’s older sister and Tecumseh graduate student, still laughs about the can of processed meat.

“We were at a Quik Shop our last Christmas together and Shannon picked up a can of Vienna Sausages,” Staci said. “The first ingredient listed was ‘Mechanically Separated Chicken.’ She was horrified. She was a vegetarian and animal lover.”

That year as a gag gift, Staci and Shannon put a can into the Christmas stocking of Sheri Martin, Shannon and Staci’s younger sister. The sausages became a running joke. Staci said she has found cans in her shoes and once mailed one to Shannon in Costa Rica.

Her favorite gag was duct taping one to the end of Sheri’s hairdryer.

“She didn’t notice, she turned it on and no air came out. She screamed when she saw the can,” Staci said.

May 13 will be the five-year anniversary of the murder of Shannon, a 23-year-old KU student killed during a short research trip to Golfito, Costa Rica. She would have graduated later that month.

Now Staci will graduate this semester with a masters degree in journalism from the University. She also works as the Dole Multimedia Newsroom Coordinator. Her family and boyfriend, Bryan, offered to throw her a graduation party, but she refused, she said.

“I wouldn’t say why,” she said. “Finally, I told Bryan the last time I planned a graduation party my sister didn’t come home.”

The grass in front of Shannon’s grave is mashed flat from where Stauffer and Staci have knelt to plant flowers.

Shannon’s grave is next her grandparents’. Staci said that when she visited the grave with Sheri, they sat on the edge of their grandparents’ headstone together. Now Sheri is in Beijing, China, studying Chinese.

“I’m definitely going to have to figure out a way to get a can to China,” she said. “If Shannon were here, she’d be plotting it with me.”

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