Gilmore Girls," that popular TV show about mother and daughter "best friends," could have been based on Shannon and Carol Voll's life. Like Lorelai Gilmore, Carol was 16 when she had Shannon. And like Lorelai, Carol, 50, always urged her daughter to aim high: to go to college and pursue a career.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Carol Voll, left, and daughter Shannon, both of Moon. Click photo for larger image.

"I told her, 'I want more for you,'" recalls Carol, of Moon, who was married to Shannon's father until just a few years ago.

Today, Shannon, 33, is a lawyer, having moved back to Pittsburgh after 11 1/2 years, most recently living in Texas. She is staying at her mom's while looking for a place of her own.

"When she called and said she was coming home, I flew right down there," says Carol. After packing up her things, she jokes that she'd let her daughter drive back to Pittsburgh for a little bit, "but then I'd get behind the wheel and go for five hours at a stretch. I just couldn't wait to have her home."

It wasn't always such a smooth ride.

"When I was 16 and she was 32, I had a little bit of a rough time," recalls Shannon. "That's when you're going through your whole rebellion thing, and I probably sassed her," she laughs.

After college -- starting at Syracuse University, ending at Penn State -- Shannon moved to Texas to attend the University of Houston Law School. But distance only strengthened their relationship.

"She became someone I could really talk to," Shannon said. "We really clicked."

The narrow age difference "does make it easier, I think, for us to relate to each other. We have more in common. Sometimes I realize I take her for granted, though. If I come home with a ripped suit, she's sitting there that night sewing it. She is just one of those people who truly have unconditional love for me. "

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