“;... basically I'm just a normal person who was addicted to 'Lost' =).”;

Emma Shaul may have only been one of the millions of “;normal”; viewers who tuned into the drama's series finale last Sunday, but her fandom did put her in good stead in our contest, inviting readers to guess the end.

As our winner, Shaul will receive the entire series on Blu-ray when it is released Aug. 24. On it, there will be exclusive, never-before-seen footage, including an extensive scene that cast member Michael Emerson said “;opens a window onto that gap of unknown time between Hurley becoming No. 1 (as the island's guardian) and the end of the series.”;

Shaul correctly guessed that Jack Shepherd (Matthew Fox) was the candidate to take over Jacob's spot as the island's guardian and that he wouldn't keep it. (He handed over that responsibility to Hugo “;Hurley”; Reyes to instead do battle with the transformed John Locke.) Shaul also figured out that Desmond Hume was the person who would assemble all the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 together in the “;flash-sideways”; alternate reality.

What she didn't anticipate, however, was that all of those characters assembled in the final scene were not alive, but dead and ready to continue their journey into the after life.

Shaul's contest entry, she admitted, “;was the ending that I would've liked. ... I was really hoping that they were still alive. But I didn't hate the show's finale because it was so emotional, with all the major characters reconnecting with each other. It was consistent with how 'Lost' has always been written, focusing on the characters.

“;I really liked them all, especially during the first season when we saw them during the flashbacks and all the issues that they had. (When they landed on the island), they had a chance to redeem themselves,”; she said. “;I also liked that the show was thought provoking, bringing up questions of ' What if?' and ' What do you think this is?'”;

Shaul was particularly attached to Fox's Jack Shepherd. The name “;Jack”; is a favorite of hers, so much so that it was the name she gave to her now- 4-year-old son. Selecting that name was a happy coincidence, but that was not the case when her next child came along the following year. She and husband, Jonathan, named Sawyer after Josh Holloway's character.

Originally from Wisconsin, the Shauls—including teenage daughter Hailey—have been living at Schofield Barracks since the summer of 2006. Jonathan Shaul, an Army chief warrant officer, was deployed overseas to Iraq in '07 and is on a tour of duty in the Sinai area of Egypt. Emma Shaul works as a teacher at the Navy Hale Keiki School.

Shaul's husband is also an avid “;Lost”; fan who has been watching the show online. In fact, he turned on his wife to “;Lost.”;

“;I sent him the first-season DVD set as a care package, and he mailed it back to me, thinking that I would like it, too,”; she recalled.

It worked. Shaul caught up with the first two seasons on home video, before watching it on TV when season three started. Daughter Hailey became a fan of the show after a visit by some crew members to her school.

As is the case with other lucky local fans, Shaul's husband had a chance meeting with one of the actors during a brief visit back home.

“;He ran into Terry O'Quinn at a Starbucks, and the both of them had a nice chat,”; she said.

Talking about “;Lost”; has been a way for the couple to stay connected during their frequent phone chats.

As for their stint here, “; We think Hawaii is beautiful,”; Shaul said, although she admits she misses the seasonal changes back home. “;Now that we live here, it's been fun watching the show, knowing where the various locations are and saying , 'I've been there.'”;

The Shauls will reside in Hawaii through 2012. They plan to eventually move back to Wisconsin.

But the memories of “;Lost”; will resonate, thanks in part to their boys.

Like the characters' personalities, “;Jack is the good one and Sawyer is my wild one,”; Shaul said. “;Every time the younger one acts up, we joke to each other that, yep, he's Sawyer.”;