With a year of marriage under their belt, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Sheerr reflect on 2017 and ponder what the future holds in store for the two lovebirds

 

When Eddie and Susan Sheerr walk into the coffee shop, they get greeted warmly. Perhaps more than usual on this particular evening. A storm is headed our way overnight and many of those gathered around their laptops and lattes are students in the midst of exam week. A snow day would be a gift – or a curse – depending on perspective.

Eddie; freshly changed out of his suit and tie, chats with anyone who wants a one-on-one with NTV’s Chief Meteorologist. “Hey Eddie! Will we have a snow day tomorrow?” one girl calls out. “Keep studying, just in case,” he cautions with a wide smile. Another young woman holds out her phone; “You just answered me on Snapchat. Thanks!”

Others have just finished watching Eddie give out the latest forecast on the NTV Evening Newshour and thank him for putting in the work. Eddie and his wife of a year, Susan, smile, chat and interact with anyone and everyone.

LOVE THEM SNOW DAYS!

When they sit, they are all smiles. Eddie holds out his phone.

“See this? These are all kids asking if they’re going to have a snow day tomorrow. Last time we had a snow day, I put out a message saying, tell me where you live and I’ll tell you personally if I think you’ll have a snow day.  Within five minutes I had 100 messages. I had to stop doing that,” he says with a laugh.

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Susan takes it all in stride. Having people gravitate towards her husband is something she says she’s grown used to.  “It’s different. And it took a while to adjust to the fact that everywhere we go everyone knows him, or they think they know him because they know who he is,” she shares. But the kindness of strangers soon became second nature, she adds.

“It’s great. People are interested in me, too, and anytime I post pictures of us I get interest and questions from people I don’t know. But it’s nice. People send us well wishes and they wish us happy holidays. It’s sweet, very sweet, and I’ve gotten to like it – or at least gotten used to it and don’t mind it.”

Susan jokes that even her own friends and family in the Bishop’s Falls area have taken to looking forward to her husband’s visits.

“Generally, in the St. John’s/metro area people will say hello, but outside of that everyone gets excited and they are happy to see him, and that’s so great. I’m from central and Eddie’s a real celebrity there. People have now made the shift from; is Susan coming home for Christmas or Easter to oh, is Eddie coming? Is he coming with Susan?”

They both laugh and Eddie shrugs innocently. More messages from school aged kids briefly interrupt our chat.

‘LIKE A BIG KID’

Eddie good naturedly works his way through the responses. Interacting with viewers of all ages is something he enjoys.

“I’m like a big kid myself, so I’m comfortable around kids. I have some younger cousins I grew up with. I’m 33, when they were born I was 16 and now they are 16 and 18 years old so we grew up together. My brother is a dad now, the baby will be a year old this February. Riley is her name and I love her, she’s so sweet,” he shares.

Susan, who also has a brother (married, no kids – yet – she offers) reflects a little on 2017.

“Can you believe we’ve been married a little over a year?” she says. Eddie playfully teases; “Really? It feels like years.”

“It was busy,” she counters.

Eddie nods;  “A lot happened.”

They bought a house. They travelled, including a few trips back to Eddie’s home state of Pennsylvania. Eddie broke his wrist and had surgery. And then there’s his extra-curricular activities.

‘I rowed in the summer and I’m doing it again this summer. I think Susan may kill me,” he says.

Susan, obviously deciding to let him live, smiles. Susan, a chartered professional accountant, also got a new job in the last few months.

FAMILY MATTERS

And, the two are planning their family. “A baby in the plans. Susan wants a baby yesterday,” Eddie shares candidly.

Susan; “We talk two. But we have a big house. We need to fill it.”

Eddie warms to that idea. “We both grew up with one other sibling. Being an only child, I’d imagine, because neither of us have that perspective, but I’d imagine it could be perhaps boring at times. My brother and I, we are two years apart, and he’s still my best friend. And Susan is close to her brother. I can’t imagine when I was little what I would have done without having my brother around. I know I wouldn’t have gotten into nearly as much trouble, for one thing.”

Susan says she knows parenting will be tough. Who will be the disciplinarian? Eddie takes the bait. “I feel like I’ll be the heavy.”

Susan shakes her head. “Neither one of us could do that. I think we are the same, right?” 

Eddie shakes his head. “My theory on raising kids is this; kids need a parent not a friend, and it’s OK to be their friend at times but you have to be more the parent. My parents were great and they raised me and I was a pretty well adjusted kid, but they were parents. They were not my friend.”

UNIQUE  ‘WEIRDNESS’

What about them as a couple? What do they like most about one another? Their unique  “weirdness” seems to be a common theme, though Eddie sweetly says he’s unsure what his bride actually sees in him.

Susan laughs at that, and touches her husband’s hand. “I think we balance each other very well,” she says.

The two lead very busy lives. Eddie plays almost every sport available on the planet, while Susan figure skates and plays volleyball. Susan offers that Eddie is the more adventurous of the two, though they both enjoy staying active.

What about on the home front?

They say they do “normal things”; they bowl (Susan is the better bowler) and they go to the movies. They do have a few interesting things they do, however.

“We do up date cards. We throw random things on those cards and the plan is to do one or two a month and so we pick a random date card from the suggestions and we go and do whatever’s on the card,” shares Susan.

Eddie’s offering is equally as charming. “We have Nerf fights. Susan got me a Nerf gun for Christmas.”

She grins. “Now Eddie hides in different parts of the house and gets me.”

He appears proud. “I’m a good shot, too. As an American I take guns very seriously,” he jokes.

So, who cooks? They both do, though their methods vary. “I don’t like a dirty kitchen. It gives me anxiety. When I cook, I clean as I go. When Susan cooks, I call it tropical storm Suze  because she just leaves stuff everywhere. But the rule is, whoever cooks, the other one has to clean.”

So, what’s the best part of being married: “This will sound super sappy, but for me, it’s just having someone to do everything with,” says Susan.

Eddie feels the same. “Having a partner and coming home to her every day is the best.”

HOME IN NEWFOUNDLAND

Susan seems to like that answer and they move on to making their home in Newfoundland.

Has this place become home? “I would say. I’m pretty ingrained here. In rowing in the Regatta and with Susan and her family and getting acquainted with being outside of St. John’s and around the bay. I know and have been to more places in Newfoundland than most people born here know of or visited. I play hockey. I curl. I bowl now. Home is where you grew up, so just because I say I’m going home doesn’t mean I don’t feel at home here. I lived a lot of places around Canada and in the US and I feel  like St. John’s is the most I’ve felt at home since leaving home.”

We have to talk weather, of course. Eddie perks up.

“This winter has been a great challenge so far because most of the systems that have come through have been ones that are involving different air masses and that makes them difficult to forecast because that’s when they start producing freezing rain and rain and ice pellets. Where will that fall? Where will the heaviest snow fall? The west coast had a very rare mid-winter thaw that led to widespread flooding and that’s something I hadn’t seen before. So while this winter is not as snowy, it’s certainly different and has presented its forecast challenges.”

Is Susan tired of hearing about weather? She laughs. “It’s really funny because he does love weather and he gets excited about snow storms and he gets up at 5 o’clock in the morning when a storm’s coming and he has the Ipad on one side and his computer on the other and there’s things everywhere. But people always ask me; what’s the weather going to be like? Before Eddie, I would know because I would watch and check. Now I don’t and I don’t ask. Unless it’s a major weather event, I know nothing and people are so disappointed.”

‘CATS ARE EASY’

Eddie and Susan seem disappointed in something else; the interview is over. As we prepare to go our separate ways Eddie has something important to add. “Hey! We didn’t talk about Denver!”

Denver? 

The cat!

“Eddie had him first. But I’m Denver’s favourite now. I never had a dog growing up and I always said when I get out on my own I’m getting a dog. But Eddie came with a cat and now Denver’s mine.”

Eddie seems willing to concede on that point. “Denver does love Susan the best.”

I joke they will have it easy when it comes to parenting children since the two have obviously mastered cat-raising. Eddie isn’t buying it.

“Cats are easy. They are not like kids. If my niece is any indication, parenting a child is going to be a lot harder than dealing with Denver!” Don’t worry Eddie; you guys have got this!