Shayna Popick
June 11, 1989 – January 21, 2025
Those who had been given the gift of knowing the intense fire and brilliant light of Shayna, it is with both sadness and with great pride we announce the immense sense of loss, and pain that goes with the passing of her divine spirit, of our daughter, on January 21, 2025.
Shayna hesitantly, yet dramatically, came into this world after after rejecting home birth, and challenging her mother, Linda DeGuere, to continue the 40 hours of labor, as her loving Father, Harry Popick assisted a large team. which included a birthing coach, midwife, a bevy of emergency room nurses, and finally the on-call emergency pediatrician, in preparation for her grand entrance, in all of her perfection on June 11, 1989, at Marin General Hospital. She was born with blue eyes that later turned to her classic, rare emerald green. Her first smile came only days later.
She gained fame immediately by having her first pictures displayed on the teleprompters, behind her father, as he worked the sound keyboard during a Grateful Dead concert, something he had done for 20 years. She later became a known presence as the baby on stage with the airplane protective earphones, always loving the music, the energy of the crowds, and friends onstage . At a very young age she became a world traveler.
Her early years were idyllic, living in a large home, in Novato that her parents shared with another newlywed couple, Bruce and Sue Arnold and their son Evan, who became lifelong friends. Eventually she moved with her mother to Larkspur and then to Sebastopol. There she lived atop Hawk ridge overlooking all of Sebastopol, with her Mother and her mothers life partner Gene Kunit until the age of 16 when she chose to move to her Fathers residence also in Sebastopol.
Shayna received a Waldorf education which served her well with her love of creating art with an internal talent born from her keen interest in the great philosophers and many new contemporary thinkers and Scholars. She attended Summerfield Waldorf School, The Mountain School, The Waldorf Charter School, El Molino High School, and the NonSuch school before leaving to get her GED online. Her independent, creative spirit, always searching
for a place, between the way she saw the world, and a need to have an accepted craft, she enrolled in the Mike Hammer School of Beauty where she excelled in Formal hair creations. Conventional thinking put pressure on her to seek her Cosmetology license, she moved to Napa to attend the Vintage Academy of Hair Design where she completed 908 hours of training before she realized that this was not her calling.
The beauty industry was always something she felt was her talent, so when her parents moved to Florida she was given a chance to go to the The Academy of Cosmetic Arts and Sciences in Palm Beach Florida where she graduated with several degrees.
Still in search of ever illusive inner happiness, she lived on a mountain top in Sebastopol, and then, seeking adventure, she moved to Hawaii. She spent her time in the sun, even adventuring aboard a catamaran giving night viewing tours of manta rays. It was a fairly peaceful time in nature for her, exploring the water, flora and fauna.
Behind her physical beauty, she possessed a brilliant inquisitive mind, with a never ending curiosity to explore a vast venue of philosophy, the esoteric, science, mental health, alternative healing, music, religions, and she was ready and was willing to pass on her vast knowledge, with those who were interested in sharing it.
Shayna had a keen sense of self, never allowing or conforming to the dictates of social norms. She lived her life in a way that she found her own sense of peace. If you cannot catch a moonbeam in your hand…Shayna was the moon. Our girl was highly compassionate, sharing whatever she had with both friends and acquaintances. Her fierce loyalty to her few true friends was unquestionable, you know who you are.
John Barlow, a contemporary philosopher, sage, lyricist and friend to John F. Kennedy jr. once said of Shayna “It is hard to raise a child who is 200 years older than you are ” those words have always summed up what we felt raising our magical child.
During her brief but meaningful life, Shayna valiantly faced many obstacles that stood in her path, overcoming challenge after challenge. Her road was not an easy one, but hopefully this short visit cleared her way to the final enlightenment and peace she so deserved.
Always a challenge, always loved. Those who knew her soul, knew they had been touched by a celestial being, May she be forever wrapped in the eternal light.
