Newlyweds Shannon and Gary Cheever

Shirley and Dwain Ehrlich

The good times they’ve share include several hobbies. Shirley loves sewing and designing. Dwain has a passion for cars (owning 77), boats (seven), and an airplane (he learned to fly in a cow pasture). Together, they’ve loved boating and ballroom dance.

Today they still dance and make time for date night each week. They also enjoy bocce ball. Oh yes, and they love a little good-hearted mischief. The Ehrlichs not only have enjoyed playing pranks; their friends have, too. One April Fool’s Day, Shirley sewed Dwain’s underwear shut. Then there was the time friends surprised them with a hand-painted mural of the “Varga Girl” on their bathroom wall. Today, the two still love to tease and surprise each other and find reasons to laugh.

We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, and it’s true. Studies show laughter relieves stress, elevates mood and makes you more resilient. It’s also good for keeping relationships resilient, as the Ehrlichs prove.

Their love of philanthropy also has gone the distance. For 20 years, the Ehrlichs have made donations to Sun Health Foundation campaigns, including the Generosity for Generations Campaign. While they thankfully haven’t needed much medical care themselves, it’s important to them that their generosity helps others enjoy more days of laughter following healthcare challenges.

Cheers to Shirley and Dwain for many more years of love and laughter — and every now and then a prank to keep things exciting.

In the twists and turns of life, it’s inspiring to know that a resilient mindset can help weather the changes and open doors to new possibilities.

For newlyweds Shannon and Gary Cheever, fate truly played its hand and opened those doors to make way for new love when they met at Sun Health’s La Loma Village Community, in January 2021.

Both Shannon and Gary lost their spouses in 2020, and both had moved to La Loma within a month of each other at the end of 2020. Shortly afterward, mutual friends invited Shannon and Gary to join them for dinner.

“We just clicked,” Gary says. “A connection formed that we cannot explain.”

“Shannon and I discovered our common interest in everything, including the fact that throughout our lives we both always accepted challenges and made things happen,” Gary says about their outlook on life. Their resilient mindset contributed to both of them having fulfilling careers. Gary moved to Phoenix in 1959 and joined Sperry Flight Systems. He also was the male vocalist with the Sperry 21-piece dance band. Later Gary started his own business in sales engineering, manufacturing and distribution. The company’s specialty was Custom DC Power Systems.

The systems were on the space shuttle; they were used for seismic exploration systems in the petroleum industry,

Shannon and Gary Cheever enjoying a hiking trip

and they allowed for the portability of kidney dialysis machines by developing a power backup system to support the technology used.

During Gary’s 30-year business career, he and his late wife lived on the Carefree private SkyRanch airport and owned nine different aircraft, including an open cockpit biplane and a competition glider.

Shannon grew up in the Midwest and spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. Although she has a B.A. in sociology, her career was spent in the business world. After three months as an “inside” sales person, she was offered a company car and a trainee position to sell industrial products in Manhattan in the 1970s. Five years later she was promoted to a marketing manager position and moved to corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado, where she and her husband lived for 25 years. “Shannon and I discovered our common interest in everything, including the fact that throughout our lives we both always accepted challenges and made things happen.”

—GARY CHEEVER

Shannon has always loved to travel and to photograph the world. She has traveled to over 100 countries and is a member of the Travelers Century Club. She has self-published 17 photography books, and her photographs adorn her and Gary’s home. She is in the process of preparing her latest book From Siberia to Moscow.

Almost one year after moving to La Loma Village, Gary and Shannon began to explore communities where they might be able to establish a home together. They found the perfect apartment at Grandview Terrace, one of Sun Health’s sister Life Plan communities. Here there was room for all of Gary’s aviation photographs and Shannon’s artwork. The Cheevers were married in March. The couple maintains their resiliency by staying active and starting their day with a healthy smoothie and their daily exercise plan. They’ve enjoyed many of the fitness classes and other opportunities at Grandview Terrace and Sun Health Wellness Center, including the massages located in the building.

“God has blessed us in so many ways,” Gary says. “We’re thankful for all we’ve received, and we’re looking forward to giving back some day to support healthcare in our community.