Ballet with her boy
story by Bridget Bennett
Shannon Gale crawls into the bed she shares with her son, Edison, 2.
They light a candle together as they give their gratitude to friends and family for the day. When Edison is a bit restless, his mother tells a story.
They exchange giggles, Edison blows out the candle and Shannon nurses him to sleep.
"We're best friends," she says.
Edison is always by Shannon’s side and even accompanies his mother to work. Shannon started the Frankfort School of Ballet in 1997 when she was 22. Later she opened the store Vibrant Life that is connected to her dance studio.
Now Edison is the center of her life.
She enjoys the environment that the dance studio has created for raising her son.
“I spent 16 years working on my businesses,” she says. “But they aren't my priority anymore."
Experiences with her own parents and watching friends raise their children have helped Shannon.
"Whenever I want to take Edison somewhere, and I don't want to do it alone, my mother will come with me," she says.
Her mother, Kathy, is Edison’s stand-in mom during mommy-and-me dance classes.
Shannon and Edison’s days are spent together.
“It’s the two of us,” she says. “I was expecting a partner.”
She acknowledges that her separation from Edison’s father came with challenges.
“I have been through physical, medical and emotional hardship,” she says. “We've climbed out of that to a point where we really enjoy ourselves."
Shannon helps Edison put on pants before they leave the house. Shannon, a single mother, founded and runs the Frankfort School of Ballet and Vibrant Life, a downtown store. "I spent 16 years working on my businesses," she says, "but they aren't my priority anymore."
Edison pages through a Peter Pan pop-up book in his playroom. "He is this person I have to discover," Shannon says.
Shannon holds Edison's hand as they walk their dog, Moxie, around their neighborhood.
Dancers Hadley Hartman (left) and Lillian Kemp crawl on top of Shannon while she teaches a mommy-and-me class at her dance studio, Frankfort School of Ballet. Edison watches from the lap of his grandmother, Kathy Gale.
Shannon nurses Edison in the grass outside the Kentucky State Capitol building. They stopped to play in the grass while they were on a walk around their neighborhood.
Edison hides a spoon as his mother guesses which hand it's in. "Being his mom is the most fun I've ever had," Shannon says.
A candle illuminates Shannon and Edison as she tells him a bedtime story. "I've always wanted to be a mom," she says. "It's so much better than I ever imagined."