Shep's Place Family Tree

It is very presumptuous to say that we adopted Anna because we could hardly take her away from her very loving parents, Sirkka-Liisa and Reijo Markkanen.

But Anna came into our lives for a very short time and left footprints on our hearts.

We had a delightful time with her as a guest in our home for three months and then enjoyed seeing her with other Sydney families for the following nine months. She then returned home to Finland and in 1992 we had the pleasure of visiting her in her home town of Kajaani where we stayed with her family for a few days.

Then in 1993 came an enormous shock. We learned that Anna had died in Finland as a result of a diving accident. The shock to Anna's parents cannot be imagined. But we feel for them constantly. Even now, thirteen years later as I write this, the tears rise and my heart goes out to Sirkka-Liisa and Reijo wherever they are.

Sirkka-Liisa, Reijo, Panu, Marja,
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Marion and Graham Shepherd

The police report of Anna's death goes very much as follows:
Anna's diving partner, a 25 year-old lieutenant and a seasoned diver was using a dry-suit, the collar of which he had cut off just before the dive. The collar normally stops the pressure differences between the headpiece and the lower part of the suit from equalizing. It is not required by the regulations and it handicaps one's movement underwater so he cut it off. It seems that when they descended to some 15 meters of depth the air inside Anna's partner's suit burst out through the headpiece taking his mask and breathing apparatus with it. After this it seems Anna tried to give him air from her spare regulator, but that being fastened not well enough it got loose and Anna's air bottles started to empty. Seeing that happen Anna went for surface but the ascent was too fast causing too rapid a drop of external pressure and thus the cause of death, diver's disease. Her partner died by drowning. Anna's heart was still functioning when she got to the hospital, but her neural system being non-responding, there was nothing much they could do.