Dickey and Michele Glisson have created a scholarship for nursing students who have overcome medical hardship and attend the Loewenberg College of Nursing at the University of Memphis Lambuth campus.
The scholarship was made to honor their daughter Shelby Glisson, who died of complications from a rare lung disease.
Her high school teacher Greg Armstrong knew Shelby well during her time at Faith Christian School.
"She had a spunk and zeal for life," Armstrong said. "I think much of it was a result of her disease and her refusal to let it control her."
Shelby's disease forced her to have a double lung transplant, meaning that any vigorous activity caused problems for her.
Since nine months old, Shelby had to have external oxygen, but made sure that she did everything that her classmates did. Shelby was an active member of her school, church, girl scout troop, and even took dance and swimming lessons.
Armstrong once panned a strenuous 10 mile hike for the students in his class and apologized for organizing an activity she could not do. She told him in no uncertain terms that she was going.
"I really admired Michele, because a mother's instinct is to protect, but Shelby was so strong willed," Armstrong said. "Michele allowed Shelby to live life to the fullest."
According to Armstrong, Shelby's freshman year was one of her toughest years, as her body was rejecting the transplant.
She had to go to St. Louis for treatment and Armstrong drove a group of students there to visit her.
"She knew how that she had less time than everyone else and liver her life with more appreciation than most kids," Armstrong said.
Shelby went to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for nursing and joined the Sigma Kappa sorority.
Armstrong thought that Shelby chose nursing because she was an empathetic person who cared strongly for others.
During her time in college in 2014, her health took a bad turn and her transplant team determined that she needed another lung transplant.
"Shelby told me that she wanted me to speak at her funeral," Armstrong said. "The message that she wanted me to convey was that she didn't want pity and that each person should treat each day as a gift."
Dr. Niles Reddick is the dean and chief operating officer of the UofM Lambuth campus.
"We are very appreciative of the Glisson family, and we will all continue to honor Shelby's legacy," Reddick said. "We will continue to grow the nursing enrollment at the UofM Lambuth and re excited to have even more scholarship support for students in need."
Although her life was filled with complications, Shelby did her best to smile in all situations. She passed away in Feb 2016.
"I think her parents have handled the situation extremely well," Armstrong said. "I feel like the way they are grieving for Shelby is to carry on her legacy, and that is the best way to remember her."
