After a tragic death, a Tri-City graduate fulfills a longtime promise to her mom

Shannon Nourse cradles a photo of her mother.

Inside the tattered and thin gold frame, Chantal Harrison sports a grin in her red cap and gown as she’s handed her high school diploma.

And Nourse, now in her own black graduation garb, looks the spitting image of her mother captured in that photo 40 years ago.

“I’m more or less graduating for my mom,” Nourse said through tears. “And for me, it’s going to be a downfall that she’s not going to be there. It’s not much of a celebration if the person you wanted to celebrate with isn’t around.”

Graduating high school was a longtime promise she gave to her mother, who died last year.

Now, she’s keeping that promise.

Nourse graduates Friday, June 9, alongside 40 other Endeavor High School online academy seniors at a special commencement at Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick.

The road to graduation for the 19-year-old was lined with a series of seemingly insurmountable challenges: A shaky family history, homelessness, her mother’s death, raising a younger brother on her own and juggling multiple jobs.

But she’s here now.

And she’s readying herself for the next steps.

‘Chaotic, stressful and overwhelming’

Chantal Harrison was the daughter of French Canadian immigrants who moved to the Tri-Cities in 1979.

Nourse — the second youngest of four children — remembers her mother spoke fluent French and loved animals “more than people.” She remembers she would often take in strays at their Kennewick home.

“She crashed four or five cars just so that she didn’t hit a squirrel,” Nourse said. “That woman had a heart of gold.”

But Nourse’s tensions within her immediate family, especially with her stepfather, soured.

She says she was kicked out at 14 and has fended for herself ever since.

Even after leaving, though, she still tried to keep a relationship with her mother.

“It got a little difficult when I got kicked out but, yeah, we were still close,” she said.

Nourse and her older sister lived with a close neighbor who took them in. She was able to find some stability there.

She recalls she was not always a good student, calling it an “off and on” relationship with learning and bounced between different high schools in Kennewick.

She found attending comprehensive high schools to be too daunting. She felt lost, like she was a small fish in a big sea and could easily fall to the side among the nearly 2,000 students at Southridge High School.

In January 2022, she enrolled in Endeavor High School and found the convenience of online learning empowering, especially as she worked and dealt with her family.

Leading up to her super senior year, Nourse said, she began making serious academic strides.

But things changed forever on June 3, 2022.

She remembers it was the day after Nourse got her driver’s license. She received a phone call from her little brother, who was still living at home with their mom.

Sick with pneumonia, her mom was trying to drive herself to see a doctor but crashed in Kennewick and suffered a medical emergency.

“I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that this isn’t just a joke,” she said.

What came next was “chaotic, stressful and overwhelming.”

‘One thing after another’

The neighbors Nourse been living with also took in her 15-year-old brother after her mother died.

One thing after another, responsibilities began to pile on. She had to grow up and grow up quick — again.

“It was definitely difficult. I was not prepared to take care of a 15-year-old boy, but I did my best. I got him into school and he’s been doing it. ....,” she said.

On top of school and caring for him, Nourse also was working two fast food jobs to make ends meet.

Betti Gregg, an English and social studies teacher at Endeavor High School, who has known Nourse since she was a sophomore, said she is one of the more mature and self-aware students.

“She’s just an amazing kid. Just the fact that she’s done all that she has, and in the face of everything she’s gone through... She’s had one thing after another happen to her” Gregg said. “For those kids, online is a huge option. But it takes so much more than people think it takes to be successful.”

Gregg, who has been an Endeavor teacher for two years and taught at Legacy High School before that, says alternative high schools provide instructors the ability to build relationships with more of their students.

And that’s an important part of the job, she said.

“The number of kids we have here who are on their own is astounding to me. I’ve been teaching for 22 years, and I’ve never seen more than a couple. I have six right now who are working on their own and paying their own bills,” she said. “So many of them don’t know what’s out there to help… and some of them know and they don’t want help.”

After graduation

Three months ago, Nourse moved into a one-bedroom apartment with her boyfriend, and her older sister has taken over caring for their brother.

She recently quit one of her jobs — a management position at a pizza store — in order to focus on the next steps in her life.

“I’m just excited to get my high school diploma and fulfill my mother’s promise,” she said.

Nourse eventually wants to attend a four-year college to pursue a career as a forensic psychologist. She plans to save some money and look at scholarships before applying to colleges.

When she graduates June 9, Nourse will be the first among her siblings to earn her high school diploma.

She hopes her little brother follows in her footsteps.