She was left paralyzed when a car rear-ended her at a traffic light. Now Secret Santa is delivering a surprise. - East Idaho News
Secret Santa

She was left paralyzed when a car rear-ended her at a traffic light. Now Secret Santa is delivering a surprise.

  Published at
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready ...

A local Secret Santa is giving $1 million to deserving people in eastern Idaho this holiday season and the East Idaho News elves are helping out.

Every day from now until the end of the year, we’ll be posting a Secret Santa surprise, and today we are surprising an incredible mom who has been through a lot over the past few years.

Shauna is the wife of a potato farmer and mother of three young kids. She has been dealt a difficult hand but has handled her circumstances with humility, courage and a positive outlook.

Shauna and her three kids were rear-ended at a traffic light three years ago. Although her kids were in the backseat, they remained unscathed from the blow. Shauna, who was in the driver’s seat, was not so lucky. Shauna was airlifted to the University of Utah and ended up paralyzed.

Before the crash, Shauna was an active young mother – hiking with her daughter, taking kids to Heise to swim with the family, actively running kids in all directions, riding along in tractors, camping, four-wheeling, and working as a surgical tech. The physical limitations that have prevented her from returning to work as a scrub tech are nothing compared to the way she and her family have had to rewrite their lives.

Shauna has not been able to give her youngest a bath because her wheelchair doesn’t fit in the bathroom of their home with the bathtub. Her top-loading washer and dryer have left her unable to do laundry unless her kindergartener is home to climb up on her lap, stand on her legs, and reach over into the washer.

Instead of giving up and applying for disability, Shauna took a job doing paperwork. She deals with all these things in a sweet, calm and quiet manner.

Secret Santa asked the East Idaho News elves to go surprise Shauna with an early Christmas gift. Watch the video in the player above!

watch Secret Santa videos

SUBMIT A CORRECTION