Introducing Sheila Wheeler

It didn’t take long for me to discover Sheila’s passion for gardening. Shortly after she moved to Londonderry from Easton, Sheila confided to me her plans for enhancing the landscaping around her new home. By the end of her first summer here she had added perennials, flowering shrubs, an outdoor fountain, trellises around her garage door and new plantings around her patio. On many a sultry summer day, Sheila could be spotted working on her garden from her wheel chair, oblivious to the heat and humidity.

Sheila’s connections with the Unitarian Universalist faith go back to her childhood in Montreal where her parents, originally Anglican, were members of the Church of the Messiah, the sole Unitarian church there. Sheila and her sister attended the church and Sunday school while they lived there, and when she married David Wheeler, they were married in that church.

After graduating from Mc Master College in Hamilton, Ontario, Sheila taught nursery school in Toronto. Later, after marrying David, an investment broker, she moved to Connecticut where she was very active in garden clubs, was chairman of the board of a small, private elementary school and of a home for elderly widows in Fairfield, CT. She and David had two children, a son and a daughter, and Sheila became stepmother to Bruce and Keith from David’s first marriage, with whom she remains close. She and her daughter, Meredith, and grandsons, Alastair and Christopher (aka Ziggy), who live in New Orleans, enjoy vacations together when schedules permit.

Seeking to simplify their lives, Sheila and David moved to the Eastern Shore fifteen years ago, first living in St. Michaels and then in Easton. David, who had been an avid sailor, transferred his talent to golf, and Sheila participated in home hospice care and Christmas in St. Michaels. After David’s death, Sheila moved to Londonderry where she has become well-known for her gardening and culinary skills, her quick wit, her interest in the other residents and her dedication to a group of feral cats residing on a vacant lot on Port Street.

When she started attending services at the Fellowship, Sheila was quite struck by the welcoming and open atmosphere of the congregation. She appreciates our thoughtful, insightful services and is looking forward to participating in some of the Adult Education programs. She is already well-known to a number of our members and I urge those of you who don’t yet know her to get acquainted with this accomplished, inspirational member. When you do, be sure to ask her about her membership in the FOG’s.