Anna M. Shotey

In Memory of Anna

Words by Timothy Tasker on behalf of Anna’s family

June 6th, 2026

These are not easy times, but I feel it is my calling and my honor to deliver these thoughts to you today. I do this out of respect, admiration, sympathy, and love. I will speak honestly about someone we have lost. A soul whose life held both deep struggle and real beauty. I feel this takes something from us all. But I believe Anna deserves honesty. She deserves to be remembered fully, not partially. And so I will try to do that. To stand here, look at all of you, and speak the truth of who she was.

She struggled. She fought a battle that so many people fight quietly and invisibly; and she tried, she tried more than once, with genuine courage, to find her way back. We may never fully understand the desperate and confused state that led to her fatal fall. There are questions without answers. And I am trying to make peace with that. And I hope, in time, you, her family and everyone she touched, can achieve that peace too. Because what we know about Anna matters far more than what we don’t.

Anna was beautiful. It was something she possessed and something she was able to give. She had a sharp and sarcastic sense of humor. She was fiercely proud of her Swedish heritage. There was an underlying quiet Nordic strength that ran through everything she did. She loved to travel, to discover, to arrive somewhere extraordinary and be fully and joyfully present in the moment.

She found deep peace in nature. In a garden, surrounded by flowers, Anna was wholly herself — present, focused, alive. She brought a keen artistic eye to her gardens. And she was so naturally artistically talented. And her pets, every animal she ever had, knew they were cherished. That tenderness spoke to a loving soul, capable of deep connection.

She was kind. Inherently, genuinely kind.

But her greatest legacy — the one that will outlast everything else — is Stella.

Stella is beautiful, strong, creative, driven, and loving. She is, in my biased opinion, simply extraordinary. And while Anna’s illness meant she was not always as present as she wished she could be — and I believe she wished it deeply — Stella gave Anna something irreplaceable: a true purpose. The love Anna had for her daughter was one of the most radiant things about her. Stella is the finest thing that has happened in my life, and I assure you all, Anna would say the same. For that, I am certain.

Going through photographs these past days has reinforced a thought. I saw and experienced Anna living her prime in a life well-lived. After leaving Scottsdale, she found her way to this special place in the Wyoming mountains. Jackson Hole and its nature is what we live in and thrive in. The outdoors, the seasons, the rhythm of this place, all give us a unique sense of life in flow. Living here is a gift we sort of stumble upon (one way or another), and if we get a little lucky and put some effort into it, it becomes part of us. And I think Anna understood that.

But the photos took me further. I am reminded of amazing, adventurous times. These include our multiple trips to Sweden, and meeting all of you, her wonderful and embracing family. They include our trips to the Amalfi Coast. Lake Como. Portugal. Greece. Paris. The Grand Prix in Monaco. MotoGP in Texas. Destinations across the United States, from east to west.

I was also reminded of our trip in a big ole 1976 recreation vehicle, driving halfway across the country, breaking down along the way, how Anna handled it calmly, without panic, and maintained a genuinely good sense of flow and humor. That was within her, taking punches and moving on. I saw it, and she was able to find happiness in what could have been sadness.

I want you, her family, to know this: Despite the challenges and troubles she faced, Anna had a good life in her prime. A full life. A beautiful one. I hope you will hold onto that part of her. The cheerful, adventurous, luminous part; and carry it forward.

Remember the softness, the depth, the tenderness of her true soul. Remember her not for her struggle. Remember her the true good soul that was within her.

And so with these words, I would like to close with two religiously influenced thoughts, and one my own.

In the spirit of a Buddhist teaching, I quote:

“I am a continuation as the rain is the continuation of the cloud.”

Anna has not disappeared. She has continued. She is within the brightness of flowers we see. Her beauty is within the deep blue sky that is above us. Her soul is within the rain, and so embrace it all. And know she will forever live in the eyes of her daughter.

From the Biblcal words of Paul, in 2 Corinthians:

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”

I hope Anna has found her eternal home.

For my personal thought, I wish to think we all have the power to choose what we remember, and what we embrace. We may carry it all, but it is the legacy of the good that shines brightest in our thoughts, and in our hearts. That is what I wish for: I wish it for me, I wish it for Stella, and I wish it for all of you.

Goodbye, Anna. Go Gently. God Speed.