Mother's Day features: Letting go but holding tight (2016) | Labor of love (2015)
When Gelen Robinson stuck a dime up his nose as a kid, mom Shantelle Clay hauled him to the ER.
When he popped an elbow out of place messing around during lunch in first grade, Mom raced to pick him up from school and hauled him to the hospital.
When he decided he wanted to load up on sports in middle school, competing in football, wrestling and track, Mom hauled him to practices.
When he won his first state wrestling title as a junior in 2013, Mom was in the stands and whooped it up in celebration.
When he enrolled in college and started at Purdue in June 2014, Mom loaded up the car, drove the 90 miles from Schererville to West Lafayette and dropped him off at the dorms — and then cried all the way home.
When he stepped onto the football field for the first time in a game as a Boilermaker on Sept. 6 later that year, Mom was in the stands and beamed.
When he was arrested for drunk driving in the summer between his freshman and sophomore seasons, Mom listened to his call, cried and then hauled herself down to campus to be with him.
When he started his first game for Purdue Oct. 3, 2015, Mom was in the stands again, loud and proud.
When he found out this year he was graduating in December — that’s earlier than expected — with a degree in selling and sales management, Mom hardly could believe it but, once over the shock, about burst with delight.
For every moment in Gelen Robinson’s life, Shantelle Clay has been the constant.
She’s been the disciplinarian. She’s been encourager. She’s been the no-sugar-coating truth-teller. She’s been the rock.
She’s been, well, everything.
Whatever the moment requires, she is, quick with the just-right advice, the perfectly timed joke, the ultimately executed rebuke.
And that’s meant, well, everything to Robinson, a starting senior defensive lineman.
“The one thing I’m proud of is how consistent she’s been throughout my whole life,” Robinson said about a week before Mother’s Day, which he is spending, naturally, with Mom. “She’s always been there for every athletic event, every graduation, for every school event. She’s always been there for me. She’s always been someone I can go to whenever I need anything related to life, not only football.
“All my life, because my dad always has been an amazing person and an amazing athlete, he’s passed down these amazing genes to me and my brother and my (half) sister, people have always really focused on that aspect. We’re always going to have that initial thought in terms of athletic ability (as Glenn Robinson’s kids). But my mom is really who has given me my personality, who has given me motivation to graduate and finish my academic career. … I’m proud of her for how she’s raised me and my brother (Glenn III) because that’s something when I have kids, I want to do with my children is make sure they’re raised the right way. I’m proud of how my mom raised me. The man I’ve become is because of her.”
That man is a 285-pound “teddy bear,” she said.
He’s a 21-year-old who loves with no conditions.
He’s demanding of himself, especially when it relates to athletics and his football career.
He’s eager to make conversation with anyone and easily adaptable to all social circles.
He’s likable, certainly aided by a toothy smile that immediately sets everyone at ease and a hearty laugh that shakes his well-muscled shoulders.
He’s developed a heart of service, twice traveling on mission trips to South Africa with Purdue’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes, as well as being a consistent presence in the West Lafayette and Lafayette communities from going to elementary schools to read to kids to playing dodge ball at the YMCA with kids to helping organize an event for Special Olympic athletes.
Some of those traits he’s gotten from Clay, especially in how he relates to people and how inclined he is to be open and engaging.
Some of her other traits are mirrored in Glenn III, who is about 15 months older than Gelen.
But both men provide a reflection of Clay's insistence on a particular upbringing: A strict streak that meant she was often viewed as what she called the "mean mom" when they were growing up balanced by an incredibly stable and supportive environment, even if there wasn’t a male role model living in the house. Clay and her mom Carolyn Crawford, who has lived in the same house with the family, supplied every element to childrearing needed and then some. But Clay compared it to a single-parent environment. Glenn Robinson has provided financial support and played a role in both of his sons’ lives but was drafted in the NBA soon after Glenn III was born and he and Clay separated soon after Gelen was born, so he often wasn’t a physical presence.
“I know a lot of people aren’t fortunate enough to have a relationship like I do with my mom,” Gelen said. “To know that she’s going to do what she has to do to make sure that me and my brother succeed in life, that’s an amazing thing for a mother to have. The sacrifices she’s made throughout her life, all the work she could have been doing, but instead coming to our practices, coming to our games, making sure we got to school on time, making sure we had everything we needed to be successful, she’s made more sacrifices than anyone in my life.”
Those sacrifices started early.
When Clay enrolled at Purdue with an intent to study social work, she already was pregnant with Glenn III. She wasn’t due until April 5, though, and she was hoping she could have him close to the end of the semester, drop him off with her mom, come back and take finals and then move forward.
It didn’t work out that way.
While back home one day in January between semesters, she took a quick bathroom break from watching one of Glenn Robinson’s games on TV. Her water broke. Glenn Robinson III was born on Jan. 8, 1994. She never returned to Purdue’s West Lafayette campus to finish school, instead enrolling at Purdue-Calumet and switching her degree to hotel tourism management.
Less than two years later, on June 10, 1995, she had Gelen.
By the time Gelen was 5, he started sports at the local YMCA. That’s when flag football came into the picture. Gelen took so many kids’ flags in one of his first games that a coach for another team asked him to stay and play in the game right after that.
He grew to love football by middle school — after learning he wouldn’t be required to do four corners anymore, “he would cry every evening when they had to do that,” Clay said. But by then, too, Gelen got involved in wrestling and track and field.
Glenn III stopped playing football by high school, focusing on basketball, a sport his younger brother never had much success in. That didn’t stop Gelen from trying it, of course, spending most of his younger days as the sixth man on Glenn III’s team. Gelen, a tough kid seemingly from birth, always was good to pick up some quick fouls, Clay joked.
But all of the athletic events meant constant scrambling and full weeknights and weekends.
Gelen said he never realized then what kind of demand that put on his mom, lugging him and Glenn III around everywhere. But he’s since developed an appreciation for the sacrifice.
Not that Clay ever would call it a sacrifice.
“It’s just motherhood. You really love your child and you’re going to do whatever, whenever in any kind of situation," she said. "I look at that as my No. 1 job, and I have another job. I’ll do whatever for my kids.
"That’s God’s gift to me, them. They’ve opened up a world I’ve never known. I’ve been very blessed, very comfortable with everything, doing everything, taking on everything. It’s been fun. Hopefully, I have a lot of lifetime left to still enjoy them. They’re really good boys."
The traveling, for one, hasn’t stopped.
Not with Glenn III playing for the Pacers in the NBA — blessedly just “down the street” in Indianapolis — and Gelen entering his senior season at Purdue.
Clay hasn’t missed a home football game during Gelen’s career, she said, and has made many road games. This year, though, she’s intent on being a “super fan” for his final season — which will require quite an effort because Purdue plays a significant road schedule, at Missouri, Wisconsin, Rutgers and Iowa.
But she doesn’t only visit West Lafayette or Indy for athletic events.
She’ll jump in the car and make the drive whenever she feels the need — or whenever her boys need her.
For even seemingly minor things.
Earlier this week, Clay was making the two-hour drive to Indianapolis to pick up Glenn III’s pitbull — and then turning right around and driving two hours back. He’s going to train this summer in California, and he didn’t feel right leaving the dog in the kennel for that long. Clay happily offered her services — she calls the dog her “grand dog” — and not for the first time. She estimated she’s made that drive specifically for that reason maybe 20 times.
But Clay doesn’t need to be in the cities of her children to see them: FaceTime is a frequently used tool.
Gelen said he speaks with his mom either on the phone or via FaceTime at least once a day, even when there’s not a specific topic he wants to discuss. He’ll call to fill the time during a drive to campus from his apartment or, even, when his dog (yes, another "grand dog," this one a Cane Corso) does something cute and he wants to share.
Sharing those small moments just continue to build the bond, and keep exposing Clay to more and more facets of her youngest son.
“I’m very proud of him,” Clay said. “He has matured so much. … He’s grown into a nice human being and just cares about a lot of things. I compare him and my other son, he’s just my diva, he loves clothes, everything. Gelen, no. He focuses on the real stuff. That’s totally cool that he’s grown up there at Purdue, definitely.”
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