My journal entry from Sept 25, 2016:
"Robin, Lauren, Brooke, and McKenzie came over for about 2 hours last night. Really fun having them all here sitting in a circle in our family room as we all talked. Love their different personalities. And such smart girls :) Turns out my gas stove is not broken after all. The girls noticed my burners were upside down and that solved the problem! And that silver ware container that bugs Den so much that it’s on the door? They showed me how it can fit nicely in the bottom part of the dishwasher, no problem. Den will be happy.
And on their way out the door….McKenzie showed me that big plant in from of Den’s office window is ROSEMARY! She said to me, “Now when you are cooking you can just come out here and get some rosemary.” I was shocked. I had no idea that now I have my very own rosemary plant."
McKenzie's obituary....
McKenzie was born in Fresno, CA on January 24, 1999. She passed away in a fatal car accident on September 7, 2020 just west of Tetonia, Idaho. Mak attended Gettysburg, Clark, Clovis High, Fresno City, BYU-Idaho and was currently a student of BYU- Hawaii. She had a passion for pole vaulting, filming and editing videos, hiking, traveling, karaoke, Family Camp at Dinkey Creek and watching Survivor with her dad :)
Mackie had a deep drive for self improvement. She loved The Book of Mormon and books on faith, business, inspiring biographies or anything health related. She chose great friends and recently she pulled out the book How To Win Friends and Influence People for the second time because she said she just wanted to learn to be a better friend.
Her parents - Dave and Robin Shepard and her siblings - Ashley Nef (Andrew), Lauren, Brooke, and Davey (Summer Lawson) are grateful for the 21 adventurous years they had with her.
And for those who were not able to attend, our watch her funeral virtually, here is Mackie's life sketch written by her mother:
McKenzie Ryann Shepard showed up, right on her due date, January 24, 1999 and within hours it snowed in Fresno California – perhaps a hint that someone special had just arrived. Born to Dave and Robin Shepard she came home to 4 siblings, Ashley (11), Lauren (9), Brooke (7) and Davey (3). We could have known her gender before her birth, but we chose not to, and we had no name for her although we had lots of ideas. 3 year old Davey’s stands out among the others, he wanted to name herTurboman-girl. Once we chose a name we debated on the spelling and it was 13 months before the paperwork for the birth certificate was actually signed and sent in. One of our neighbors asked if it was a weird Mormon thing to not name your baby right away. In fact it is not, it is just a weird Shepard thing. At the time Dave called McKenzie the perfect baby – she went to sleep easily, loved her pacifier and rarely cried. He referred to her as an angel sent from heaven. When she was still sleeping in our bed between us at the age of 3 she was just a little less perfect. Anxious I suppose to get on in life she walked at 8 ½ months. Once she stood up she never crawled again. By the time she was 1 we had to remove the bunk beds from our house because she would not stay off the top bunk – and so the adventure began.
At the age of 2 she REALLY cared about what she wore. She had her own style that she referred to as “Funky Fresh”. I noticed that phrase on the side of a Jamba Juice Cup recently and wondered who plagiarized who. In recent years her clothes came from yard sales, thrift stores and online sites. She had a great distaste for AND love of brand name clothes all at the same time. She was a minimalist in her heart but she loved clothes and shoes to much to be a minimalist in her closet.
Mak had the ability to think outside the box at a young age. When it was difficult for her to reach the sink to brush her teeth we caught her dipping her toothbrush in the toilet.
She learned to tie her own shoes at the age of 3. We have pictures to prove it.
Before she was old enough for school Mackie was in a playgroup with Maddie Freeman, Ryann Woods, Hayley Hawkins and Natalie Malan. She would sob when I dropped her off and then refuse to leave when I would come to pick her up. Natalie and Mak are still good friends.
At 3 years old she started attending Sunbeams at church. After 2 weeks she came home upset because no one had asked her to give a talk yet. After that she brought one with her every week just in case.
At the age of 5 we moved from our country house on International to our city house on Fairmont and McKenzie started school at Gettysburg Elementary. School wasn’t necessarily her thing and in first grade she announced that she would only be attending until she learned to read. On the weekends if we drove past Gettysburg she would turn her head and say that looking at the school made her eyes burn. I heard the phrase, “My eyes are burning” too many times to count. In fact it took an enormous amount of effort, tutoring, time and work before she could read. It was 5th grade when reading finally clicked yet it never seemed to embarrass her, she just knew that was her challenge. She learned early on that she COULD do hard things. When asked years later if she would have preferred home school she said, “Oh I wouldn’t have liked that either. School was fine.”
When Mak turned 8 she was baptized and Grandma Nellie gave her a set of new leather bound scriptures of her very own. McKenzie noticed that other people marked or highlighted or underlined verses in their scriptures and she wanted to do the same. So in her 8 year old way she set out to imitate what she saw and she marked all of the nouns in purple and the verbs in orange for 6 or 7 pages before her hand wore out.
School was GREAT once she was old enough for sports. T-ball came first and then soccer. During one season she was the only player who ever scored for her team. She wore a pair of hand me down cleats that were a size too big and her skills weren’t the most refined but her intensity reigned supreme.
Then came track and basketball and softball and gymnastics. All at school. Fiercely competitive she could hold her own in most any sport. The longer the practice, the harder the work out the happier she was.
Growing up her cousins Kaidy and Tess and then Laurynn were her very best buddies. Chloe Swinney was every bit a cousin too although not by blood. Family Camp every year with the cousins at Dinkey Creek trumped all vacations anywhere on planet earth. No discussion.
In 5th grade Mak came down with mono and there was a distinct difference in her energy level for pretty much the rest of her life. For most people she was still at double speed but she was often frustrated by her lack of energy . Slowing down may have been what kept her on the earth for as long as she was.
McKenzie rarely gave up. She wanted to be a cheerleader and tried out 6 times before she made the team at Clovis High her sophomore year. Because she never had any dance or gymnastics outside of school teams she was at a distinct disadvantage. What she knew she knew well but she found it difficult to keep up with girls who had years of experience and she soon returned her full focus to what she loved most – pole vaulting!
Mak loved vaulting with every fiber of her body and never went to a practice she didn’t love. She had 9 vaulting coaches in 4 years at Clovis High. She applied for and received a transfer to Buchannan hoping for a consistent coach - but turned it down because she just couldn’t fathom sitting out a year. Her ultimate vaulting goal was to follow in her dad and Ashley’s footsteps and vault for BYU, but that was not to be. One semester when she was off track from BYU Idaho, still hoping to qualify for the BYU team, she vaulted for Fresno City College. She was near the top of her league when the sports program was shut down because of NCAA violations by someone in the athletic department. Her last chance to qualify would come at the Clovis Street Vault in Old Towne but she broke her arm in a practice one week prior to the event.
McKenzie had MANY great teachers and leaders at church, more than I can list or remember. She was especially fond of her amazing Seminary teachers: Becky Petridge and Sue Williams and Jason McOmber. Even though her days were long with school and sports, she never wanted to miss Seminary at 6:25 am even on those rare occasions when I suggested she might need some extra sleep. Starting every morning with her “Seminary Family” was the best! At one time she asked not to be seated by Taylor Halvorson in Seminary because she knew the pull to talk would be too hard to resist. That didn’t last long.
She learned to love photography from Stephanie Ryann and considered her one of her best friends regardless of the age difference.
Mak was 11 when Dave and Teri Barrett moved to town and called to see if she would be willing to babysit their 4 children. Dave and I were slightly amused by the idea because Mackie, being the youngest of 5, had never really taken care of anyone. Mak loved those children so much that she asked if Terri would consider having one more.
FRIENDS were EVERYTHING to McKenzie. Cousins Katie, Tess and Laurynn were like sisters. Sometimes maybe better. In High School Taylor Halvorson, Kendal Pope and Abbey Halvorson came along and changed her world. Everyone needs great friends in High School and she found the very best. She LOVED any opportunity to spend time with them especially if it involved travel or adventure or a work out. Then there were what she called her “North Stake and YSA Friends” which included Kylie and Natalie and Spencer and Tyler and Tyler and Brennan (Bri-nan) and Carson and Grant… Oh how she loved them all! I know this list is VERY, VERY incomplete.
Mak really wanted to go to BYU Provo to pole vault or BYU Hawaii but when she ended up in Idaho she settled in and after some ups and downs embraced Idaho with an intensity that only she is capable of. She loved the snow and the mountains and the school and the classes and most of all the friends. Early on she told me that she would only be in college until she knew enough to launch her own business. A diploma was never her end goal but she did manage to earn her AA last year.
Side note – For those who know our home we have a wall full of certificates and pictures and diplomas. Some represent silly accomplishments and some are grand. When McKenzie received an envelope in the mail with the words “Diploma Enclosed” stamped on the outside she refused to open it. She said she always thought she would know what to do with her life once she had a diploma, and because she still didn’t know, she just couldn’t open it. It has been hanging framed on our wall inside it’s sealed envelope ever since.
Mackie was a missionary at heart. When many of her friends went off to great places like Texas and Brazil and New York to serve missions she decided she would be a missionary to her friends and roommates in college who might be struggling with their own faith and testimonies of Jesus Christ. She decided she would attend devotionals and church and the temple and she would try to set an example that might make it easier for others to find and live their faith.
One of the things she loved most about BYU Idaho were the class devotionals and prayers. She loved being able to talk about God in her science class or math class or any other class. She would often call to tell me about especially inspiring stories. She was almost always up for a gospel discussion.
Mak had grit. Several years ago she gave up soda for her new year’s resolution and she stuck to it. The next year she gave up ice cream and then candy the next. She was interested in anything that could improve her health and she gave up gluten and dairy and a myriad of other things in pursuit of the energy that she wanted so badly.
Mak was an entrepreneur from the start. At 5 years old she made and sold fans for 25 cents each. When the fan business slowed down she started charging family members 25 cents to watch her jump rope. In high school she would buy candy bars at Costco and sell them to teachers and students. She ordered bracelets from China and sold them to friends or anyone interested. She made scarves and greeting cards and jewelry… She would create company names and logos. She considered a degree in marketing. She had a good eye for what’s in style and bought a lot at yard sales and thrift stores and resold it online. She read me a list of all of her business ventures recently and it was quite lengthy. Her mind was always trying to figure out the next great idea and she was a little frustrated that she hadn’t made her mark on the world by the age of 21.
McKenzie applied to BYU – Hawaii 3 times. After hearing of Brookes adventures there she wanted to experience the same for herself. When she was turned down the second time she called and had a talk with the admissions officer. She then applied again and was accepted for the fall semester of 2020. If it were not for COVID she would probably be there right now. When Hawaii announced that learning would be remote she did not hesitate to stay in Idaho. She really loved her Idaho friends especially Brini (Brin-ee) Alexa and Ty among others. She was somewhat hopeful that Hawaii would open up for the winter semester but she made it clear to me that if she remained in Idaho it would not be a bad thing.
Just to keep it real I asked her sisters what drove them crazy about Mak and Ashley aptly replied, “The same things that we loved about her.” Meaning the intensity with which she lived life could sometimes be mistaken for relentlessness. She loved a good argument and if she felt it fading she would switch positions in the middle just to keep it going. She was messy. Her nickname was the “slug” because you never need wonder where Mak had been in the house – she left a trail of possessions. She liked her clothing close at hand and rarely used a hanger. She considered getting over fences with locked gates around stadiums an enhancement to her workout. She saw due dates and deadlines as mere suggestions and said she did her best work under the gun or just a little on the late side. We stressed. She didn’t.
She was a hugger. In fact she hugged me so much it became almost a joke. I told her that I was ok with it as long as she didn’t hug me in front of MY friends. She hugged me anyway and I probably got more than my life time share for which I am grateful.
She had fears. As a toddler she was attacked by a flock of ducks at Woodward Park because she had a piece of bread in her hand. After that she was terrified of all animals to an irrational level. Then one day a few years later we got a dog and she instantly was over it. She was terrified of flying and passed up several great trips including one to Hawaii. Dave and I surprised her on her 16th birthday and took her to the airport instead of Seminary that morning and got her on a plane quite reluctantly to San Diego. Mid flight she was planning her next several trips and when she arrived after a very short flight she wondered if she might have jet lag. When the trip was over all fear was gone. She lived life in hyperbole. It was all or nothing.
These last several months Mak and her cousin Laurynn lived in the small town of Victor, Idaho in an old red farm house with cows and bison roaming their front yard. The view from the property was nothing short of amazing!! They worked for a landscape maintenance company taking care of yards in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. At work Mak made 2 great new friends, Tawni and Riley and had planned to be their roommates at the Cove. It was a great summer job for a girl who loved being outdoors. It also allowed her to listen to numberless books and podcasts on health and business and anything spiritual or entrepreneurial. She felt blessed to have this opportunity.
Mak was prayerful and she knew how to fast. From a young age she would not go to bed before family prayer. She wanted to have her own copy of the Bible or Book of Mormon on her lap when we would read each night long before she could read herself. She went to the Lord often with her concerns whether they be health or friends or relationships or work or family. I know because I knelt with her on many occasions. A few weeks ago we had a long talk and she was trying to sort out what the Lord wanted for her next in her life and she just wasn’t getting the answers she was seeking. Heaven seemed silent. This accident in Idaho did not take her life. The Lord has protected our family on many, many, many occasions. He could have easily protected her but He had another plan and I have no doubt she is happily off on her next great adventure!
