By Sandy Meyer
Sandy Shannon-Vance has lived in Brandon for 50 years and was an employee of Brandon Dental for 40 years. One of her favorite pastimes with her daughter Teena Runnels, is to get mother-daughter pedicures.
Recently though, the simple pleasure of going to the spa for a pedicure with her daughter has been difficult if not impossible. Shannon-Vance was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year and has been fighting the good fight since.
Most of her outings over the last several months have consisted of doctor appointments and cancer treatments. Shannon-Vance has been valiantly fighting her serious diagnosis but recently had to have her right kidney removed.
Her son-in-law, Warren Runnels knew how much the pedicures meant to both his wife Teena and her mother and an idea came to him. “I had been familiar with Day Dreams Day Spa and had purchased gift certificates in the past and something dawned on me as I drove past it,” said Runnels.
Runnels stopped in the spa and asked about having a manicurist come to the house so that his mother-in-law could be pampered for just one day though he knew this wasn’t a service the spa offered.
Later that afternoon, Runnels received a call from Ben Keller, one of the Day Dreams’ owners, advising him that two of his employees had volunteered their time to come to his house and give his wife and mother-in-law a mother-daughter pedicure. Not only did they come to the house, said Runnels, but they gifted the pedicures.
“I just really thought it was an amazing blessing that they would consider doing this for my mother-in-law at a time when we didn’t know if she would make it another week,” he said.
“It was such an unexpected surprise when Warren and the Day Dream Spa employees walked in my house. It meant so much to me that Warren would think so much of me and my daughter during such challenging circumstances. He is a great son-in-law,” said Shannon-Vance.
Teena Runnels was just as thrilled. “Spending time with my mom and seeing her treated like a princess for a couple of hours was a treasure I will have for a lifetime,” she said.
Day Dreams is located at 658 Oakfield Dr. in Brandon. Call 657-2992 or visit daydreamsdayspa.com.
