Their flexibility became useful when in 1983, Candy became pregnant with their first child, a daughter they had a massive argument in naming. Candy wanted to stick with her family tradition of each generation starting with a consecutive letter of the alphabet (the next in the sequence was 'D'). Steve wanted to name his children for Greek gods and goddesses and had his heart set on naming their first daughter 'Artemis' for the goddess of the hunt or 'Apollo' for their first son after the god of the sun and Artemis' twin. The compromise: Deanna (Diana was Artemis' Roman moniker), with Artemis as her middle name. Two years later, sister Danica Aphrodite (aka Dani) joined her and four years after that, Davina (Davi) Athena.

The family was extremely active. Steve and Candy were both runners. The girls played soccer, ran, were all excellent swimmers and their father taught them how to snorkel. As usually happened in families, the younger girls tried their best to catch up and keep up with their oldest sister. Due to Candy's postings and Steve's digs, the family moved all over Europe, living at alternate times in Crete, Greece and Germany. The family didn't live in Germany long enough for the girls to pick up the language there, but they all did learn to speak Greek fluently

Both Steve and Candy raised their daughters with the idea that they were capable of anything and there was no use in holding to traditional gender roles if they did not want to. There were times when Steve would remain on base housing with the girls while Candy was temporarily assigned to Asia or even returned Stateside and the conversation came out of the girls asking their father why he wasn't like the 'other daddies' who went off to work every morning while 'the mommies' stayed at home on the base. Steve considered himself a feminist whose most important job was to reaffirm that there was nothing wrong with their mother's role as an active member of the military or his own choice in staying at home as caretaker. 'There's no 'wrong', only different' was one of his favorite lessons to his three daughters.

When Dee was 13, Candy was permanently assigned to the Hanscomb Air Force Base in Concord MA and Steve was offered a full time professorship at his alma mater, Boston University. The family settled in Steve's hometown of Lincoln and the girls began attending the local schools. For the first time in their lives, the Shapiro girls were settling into actual off base housing with both of their parents off to work at the same time. It wasn't an easy transition for Dee, who on top of missing her carefree childhood, was also a full foot taller than all of her classmates, female and male, and hated sticking out.

Dee was befriended by Cassandra Archer, whose father knew Dee's through occasional meeting about procuring artifacts for various Boston museums. It took a long time for Cass to break through to Dee's almost crippling shyness but the girls did become close friends, a connection that extended through the rest of their lives.

Even with Cass' friendship, Dee was something of a loner until she was approached by one of the PE teachers who noted that she was a very good athlete in gym class, much more advanced than some of the other girls. After being introduced to official track and field, she fell in love with the sport. Her natural height gave her advantage in the high jump and she picked up the javelin with a frightening speed. Her coaches realized that Dee had the makings of a star heptathlete--never being the top of the range at any one but strong enough to load up points in the seven events that made up the discipline: 100 metres hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 metres, long jump, javelin throw and the 800 metres run.

Motivation to do well in school returned so that she could maintain her eligibility to compete. Coaches from around the country all travelled to Lincoln to try and convince the girl many were calling the best US hope for a medal in heptathlon since Jackie Joyner Kersee to attend their school after graduation. UCLA, Tennessee, University of Florida, Wisconsin--all the major Division I track and field powers courted her and in 1998, Dee started attending UCLA on a full athletic scholarship.

Dee loved college. She was academically challenged, she had actual competition during practices and even though she knew she was there because she was a 'jock' her peers did not resent this, they welcomed her. She even started dating, meeting her first serious boyfriend, a soccer player named Alex, during freshman orientation. The outgoing native Californian seemed an unlikely fit with Dee but they moved from friendship to a romantic relationship rather quickly and happily.

On the athletic front, Dee's first track seasons were phenomenal: she won her first three meets in the fall and placed in the top five more often than not, ending her freshman year with six meet championships in full and named to the All-American First Team. Finally topping out at a height of five foot eleven, she was nicknamed 'The Amazon'. She wasn't exactly 'Big Girl on Campus' but she was pretty darned close and the rumblings of a shot at qualifying for the 2000 Athens Olympics began to grow.

Well, until she completely destroyed her left knee during the long jump in the first meet of her sophomore spring season. She tore all three major ligament groups, broke her patella and there was a serious discussion of her entire knee needing to be replaced or even amputation of the leg just above the knee due to the severity her injury. There was no way that she could recover enough for the rest of the season. There was very little hope that she would be able to compete on the elite level ever again. After a long discussion with her parents, coaches and doctors, Dee opted to give up her scholarship, leaving UCLA and returning to Massachusetts for extensive rehab.

Leaving UCLA also meant leaving Alex, which was devastating on more than one front. Not only did she truly love Alex, but she worried who Alex would turn to during this most difficult time. He had confessed to her during their freshman year that he believed he was transgendered, feeling far more comfortable as a female. He had told others but Dee was one of the few who accepted his confession with understanding and compassion, repeating her father's lesson of it not being 'wrong just different'. During the rest of her time at UCLA, Dee was one of the people who stood by Alex, shifting from calling Alex her 'boyfriend' to using the female pronouns that she prefered and naming Alex her 'girlfriend'.

Alex's family had been supportive of her transition and Dee didn't feel she could ask Alex to leave her support system just because she was returning to the East Coast. They broke off their relationship with great reluctance, though they vowed to remain friends always.

Physical therapy after the surgery that reconstructed her left knee was not easy but she was never one to run from a challenge. She grew to respect her team of physical therapists and after she was able to start walking with the help of a cane in the matter of four months, she decided to enroll at Boston University. After eighteen months she was recovered from her injury enough to walk unassisted though her doctors continued to insist that her career as a track and field athlete was over.

Dee had thought about becoming a physical therapist in her own right but knowing she was looking at another five years in college to do that, opted to major in Athletic Training and after graduation became an assistant athletic trainer at Fenway High School where her father had taught before Dee was even born. She moved into the Kenmore neighborhood of Boston and networked with friends and former professors as she worked her way up in her chosen field. She added many other skills to her training routines and a friend who was leaving her position at ProEx Physical Therapy recommended Dee as a replacement as a trainer and exercise technician, monitoring patients vital signs as they go through their the physical therapy sessions and helping to maintain the health and safety of the clients.

Dee had been introduced to yoga during her knee rehab and went back to the practice to help her own patients. She became a certified trainer and teacher in hatha, restorative and Iyengar forms of yoga along with the American College of Sports Medicine certification she received right after graduating B.U. She became a therapy technician with ProEx in Back Bay, a physical therapy clinic that specializes in sport injury rehabilitation. She very much enjoyed her job in the beginning, helping to put together PT routines and overseeing sessions.

But in 2014, everything for Dee started to change. First it was the memory loss, missing a week at a time once a month. Then the strange appearances of odd objects and even the ability to lift impossible weights. Then over the majority of 2015, Dee's life had been filled with not only the memory losses but several brutal attacks, the last of which left her unable to focus on work or able to leave her home alone for a time. Her injuries and the associated psychological disorders created a strain in relationships between herself and her sisters, who resented the attention their parents gave her as she attempted to recover.

Unable to function at her place of employment lead her to have to leave Proex and receive Disability payments as she was dealing with the trauma of healing injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She entered therapy with a former college of her mother who specialized in treating PTSD. He recommended that since having her golden retriever near her tended to help her panic attacks and the breed was well suited as therapy animals, She and Cricket were admitted to a training program for sufferers of PTSD so that he could become a licensed companion animal and she could bring him with her to as many places as possible.

The training process was the key to helping Dee to return to as close to her old normal life as she could manage. Even with the growing attacks in Boston and her growing understanding of the 'visitor' who would sometimes take over her psyche (though that part is unknown to all but a few trusted people), she was able to resume work. She opted not to return to ProEx and instead in March of 2016, she began teaching yoga full time as part of her duties as a Health & Wellness Associate at a major Boston corporation's Employee Wellness Program. She also went back to her athletic training, since the discipline required was something that helped to settle her. After being cleared by her own physician, she began training for the Boston Triathlon, which she completed in August of 2015. Since then Dee started taking up triathlon as a hobby and on September 18th, she completed her first half Ironman Triathlon, finishing last in her age group. She was also able to take up a part-time job at Bliss Spa in the W Hotel, a breakthrough considering its proximity to her previous place of employment and site of her 2015 abduction.