Shaun and Tim: Can’t stop a dream
Written by Charles Noyes
Photos by Shana Sureck Photography
Published in Northampton Living (December 2020)
Few people know the Valley better than Shaun McLean. For over 40 years, Shaun has called the Valley home. She met her husband, Tim Pitkin, at the Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst and they were married there four years later. Their two children were born at Cooley-Dickinson and raised in the Valley, all while Shaun tended to her 35-year career as a lawyer. Now she’s embarking on a new career path: real estate. She’s seen her life come full circle as she now helps others find the same joy the Valley has brought her.
Shaun and Tim take great pride in their Valley roots. Shaun said, “I love the River Valley Co-op and the commitment to organic food. And the physical beauty of the Valley, you can’t beat that, especially the views from the Holyoke mountain range.” Their love for the Valley often circles back to its natural beauty, with Tim saying, “We’ve always hiked. Shaun and I have always been big walkers. Some of our first dates were hiking up Skinner Mountain and we still do that hike often.”
Tim appreciates the beauty of the Valley from his bicycle. He worked as a high school math teacher for 28 years and he loved every minute of it, but since retiring he’s found lots of time for his passion, cycling. “I’m an avid cyclist so I will just take off in any direction and find the most amazing rides. Just today I went to Greenfield through Deerfield and Whately and it was just spectacular.”
Along with their respective careers, Shaun and Tim have two daughters: Rose and Annie. Both have moved away from the Valley for school and work. Rose is in medical school at Quinnipiac in New Haven and Annie works as an engineer in West Hartford. They still visit often and recount idyllic memories of growing up in the Valley.
Rose shared, “I feel like Northampton has been with me at every stage in life. We would all go to Look Park and ride the bumper boats as kids. Then, in high school, I’d go with my friends to Pearl Street to see our friends’ bands play. And then in college we’d all go out to Diva’s and now I go out to the Basement. There are so many staples that have been here forever so it always feels like home when I get here.”
And while the pandemic has unfortunately made some of the family’s favorite aspects of Valley life temporarily unattainable, the experience of life under quarantine hasn’t been all bad. Shaun’s response when asked how their lives have changed in 2020 was, “How have our lives not changed?” Rose decided to use some of her extra time to help her community. “When the pandemic hit and food insecurity became an even larger problem,” Rose said, “I decided to volunteer at the Loaves and Fishes food pantry in New Haven. I was there four days a week for six or seven weeks helping them scale up and meet the incredible demands on them.”
Shaun, on the other hand, who was so familiar with using the law as a vehicle to contribute to her community, was drawn to something else. Another passion had lain dormant in the back of her mind for decades and when work as a lawyer took a downturn because of the pandemic, she decided the moment was right for a career change. “Real estate isn’t something you go into to make a quick buck. This is going to be a lifetime transition for me. I love real estate and the idea of helping people find the right space for them really excites me.” She added, ”I’ve always wanted to be a realtor, really for decades. But the voice in my head kept repeating, ‘you can’t give up being a lawyer to go sell real estate.’ I decided one day that yeah, I could.”
But Shaun wasn’t content with only restarting her career in 2020. In January, she and Tim had made an offer on a new house and they weren’t going to let a career change and global pandemic get in the way of their move. “In the middle of moving I asked myself, ‘What are we doing? Are we really doing this thing?’ But we followed our intuition and moved forward because it’s always been a dream of ours to live in Northampton.” Annie talked about how emotional the experience was for everyone. “The first time we reunited after the pandemic was at the new house they’d moved into. We ate dinner socially distanced on the floor without any furniture, it was surreal.”
Shaun experienced firsthand how emotional moving can be. “We sold the house we raised our kids in, in West Springfield… it had sort of become a mausoleum to our children,” she said somberly, “Giving it up was so hard and wrought with emotion, giving up all that stuff. But that experience gave me a shared perspective with people who are looking to move on and find a house that works with the life they have now. I understand, personally, how emotional moving can be.”
But even though life has been in flux this year and change has been the only constant, Shaun is optimistic about her new job. She mentioned how her experience as a lawyer has already come in handy as a realtor. “You have to be incredibly responsive, organized, and prepared with information. As a lawyer, when I got to court in the morning with 20 cases, I needed exactly the same skills. When people are interested in property, they’re not talking about next month; they want to see it right now! Especially in this area where houses are being sold 30 percent faster this year than last.” Shaun and her family look towards the future when they can travel again to New York City for a Broadway show or vacation in Italy.
Shaun wants to resume learning Arabic some day and, of course, they all look forward to seeing each other again soon, without restrictions. Until then, Shaun will continue helping people find the right space for their lives one house at a time and enjoying the Valley’s natural beauty and vibrant charm. And Tim will continue to look for the perfect bike ride.
