Steven Justin Shapiro

Steven Justin Shapiro was born on July 25th, 1962 to Donald and Barbara Shapiro. His father was in the Air Force, so the family moved several times until finally ending up in Dayton, Ohio, where his parents divorced. Steve spent the rest of his childhood in a small house in Beavercreek with his siblings. He graduated from Beavercreek High School and spent one year at Wright State University, where he met and married Carrie Betteridge. They bought a house in Enon and Steven left college and worked at Deals Landscaping Service for about 8 years. Steve and Carrie did not have any children, and eventually divorced. Somewhere during this time Steven began to experiment with drugs, and later began to hear voices and to show signs of Schizophrenia. He left Deals and worked for Rush package delivery for a time, before his illness began to take a toll on his life. Over the next three decades he would become a ward of the state, living in Xenia in an apartment partially provided by the government. Sadly, he began to isolate himself, preferring the voices in his head even to the company of his own family. His last couple months, he lost the ability to care for himself, lost his Apartment, and began living out of his car, refusing to live in a shelter because of the things the voices in his head were telling him. Shortly thereafter, Steven became ill and was admitted to the hospital with a severe respiratory infection. He passed away on January 5th, 2022 at the age of 59.

Steven was more of a father to the rest of us than our own father, who left us when the rest of us were still little. He taught us daily tasks like how to make our beds and wash dishes. He taught us games. He taught us about computers, and how to make things. He had a truly compassionate, empathic soul.

Goodbye Steven, we will miss you. You were a big brother to us, but also a father, and teacher.

Rest In Peace, our beloved brother,

Michael, Daniel, and Susan