HANCOCK COUNTY — Siblings Lincoln and Shiloh McFarland have stood out during their time at Mt. Vernon High School.
Lincoln has been a frequent spectator at athletic competitions in the school’s gymnasium as well as a favored fan among athletes. Shiloh, No. 4 in her class, served as president of student government and had a calendar packed with extracurricular activities.
Their time at Mt. Vernon is drawing to a close. Lincoln, a special-needs student, has reached the end of his time with the school now that he’s 22. For 18-year old Shiloh, it’s time to graduate.
While they’ve led very different lives, they’re connected by the ways they’ve helped shape each other into the young adults they’ve become.
Lincoln was born 3½ months prematurely and had a brain hemorrhage that caused significant brain damage, leading to cerebral palsy.
“He doesn’t walk, he doesn’t talk, but he crawls and he tries really hard to communicate with people,” said his mother, Audra McFarland.
He was communicating pure happiness on a recent visit to Mt. Vernon High School’s gym during a boy’s basketball practice.
Up until the COVID-19 pandemic reached Indiana in March 2020, Lincoln could often be found with his family in the same corner of the gym for home basketball games. His mom and dad, Rick McFarland, are both Mt. Vernon alumni, as are all of their parents.
“He comes because he loves the gym,” Audra said, adding that venues like baseball diamonds and football fields don’t hold sound the same way. “In here, he loves the buzzer, the whistles, the screechy shoes, the balls bouncing. Volleyball and basketball he is really excited about. He likes noise in general; he likes things on full volume, so he loves being in the gym.”
Not only did Lincoln have to miss out on basketball games and volleyball matches during their recent seasons, but in-person school as well, as he wasn’t able to get vaccinated until May.
“Because of health issues, we just thought it was safer to have him at home than to have him at school,” Audra said.
The sudden lack of structure and social interaction were challenges.
“He is a very social kid, so not coming to school was really hard for him,” Audra said.
Audra and Shiloh think all of his immediate family members being home at the start of the pandemic helped accustom him to the change, however.
“We were all there with him, and he loves that,” Audra said. “He loves when we’re all together, so that was good at the beginning.”
He and his family are used to facing challenges, ever since he spent the first three months of his life in the hospital.
“We’ve always had a strong faith, and so we’ve always just kind of turned it over to God,” Audra said. “Whatever he has in store for us, that’s where we’re going to go. And we know that Lincoln’s life doesn’t look like what we probably assumed it would before he was born, but God has a plan for that and God’s going to use him and he’s used Lincoln to touch so many people. Lincoln has really been a positive influence in a lot of people’s lives.”
Take his sister, for example. In all of her five years in elementary school, each of her teachers told Audra the same thing at the first parent-teacher conference.
“All used the same word to describe her,” Audra said. “They all said, ‘She’s the most compassionate child I’ve ever had.’ And I know that is about Lincoln. It’s about growing up with him, and working with him, and learning to accept and work with the challenges and things that we have to deal with. And that’s just who she is.”
Being 3½ years Shiloh’s senior, he’s always been a part of her life.
“He’s older than me, so ever since I was born, he’s been around, and so it’s always been second nature to have somebody to look out for,” Shiloh said. “He’s my brother; he’s the only one who’s been around with me my whole life and through all the same experiences as me.”
The feeling is mutual, Audra said.
“He’s very loving; he loves to pull her over and hug on her head,” she said.
Playing basketball in their driveway is one of their favorite activities to do together.
“And he likes to bounce these little bouncy balls as high as you can,” Shiloh said. “That’s his favorite thing. And every once in a while, one of the little bouncy balls will just go wrong and hit him, and he’ll think it’s so funny, and he’ll laugh so hard every time it hits him.”
He enjoys watching the family’s old home videos as well.
“That’s one of his favorite ways to pass the time,” Shiloh said. “And we love to watch the home videos too, so that’s one of our favorite things too.”
This fall, Shiloh is heading to Taylor University in Upland to study social studies education. She wants to be a history teacher.
Shiloh comes from a family of history buffs, particularly when it comes to the Civil War. So much so, that she’s named after the conflict’s Battle of Shiloh, a comeback victory for the Union following a surprise Confederate attack in Tennessee in 1862. Her brother, of course, is named after President Abraham Lincoln, who led the country through the domestic hostilities.
“So we’ve been raised on Civil War history,” Shiloh said. “Every vacation, we go to battlefields and we learn about history, and I feel like most kids would’ve been annoyed with that, but since I was raised on it, I just became really passionate about it too, so now I’m going to be a history teacher also.”
Her eighth-grade history teacher, Marisa Salasky, also helped inspire her to pursue her chosen career.
“I came home from school on the first day, and I was like, that’s what I want to do,” Shiloh said. “I want to be just like her. I loved her so much.”
Lincoln was part of Mt. Vernon High School essential skills teacher Brydgette Manship’s class. When he was able to attend school in person, he joined his fellow special-needs students in a variety of activities, including helping with laundry for the MV Cooperative Closet, the school district’s clothing bank. Sometimes they’d also visit Kinsey’s Italian Cafe in McCordsville, where they’d help with tasks like prepping pizza boxes.
“That was part of their day, was to do some of that transitional, growing-up stuff,” Audra said.
Manship said she missed seeing Lincoln over the past school year.
“He’s never in a bad mood,” she said. “He’s always our happiest kid.”
Lincoln was well-liked among students too. Audra recalled how athletes would come over to trade fist bumps with him before games. At the end of the girls basketball sectional last year, Mt. Vernon’s team gave him a ball signed by all the players.
“Everybody loves Lincoln,” Manship said. “He’s out, and visible, and everybody sees him all the time and he’s part of everything.”
And just because he’s done learning at Mt. Vernon, he’s not anywhere near through enjoying all the excitement its gymnasium has to offer.
“As soon as volleyball starts again in August, we’ll be back over here, back in the gym, and he’ll be quite happy,” Audra said.
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This story is part of a series about members of the Class of 2021 in Hancock County as they prepare for commencement exercises.
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Mt. Vernon High School graduation
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 11
Where: Mt. Vernon High School
Rain dates: 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 12; 4:30 p.m. Sunday, June 13
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