Helena Catherine Shaw

Helena Shaw, age 92, died on January 13, 2019 at the home of her family in Baytown. She was born on August 18, 1926 in Grenada, West Indies, to Tommy Hills and Rosetta Felix and was the youngest of 8 children. Helena moved to Port of Spain, Trinidad at the age of 18 where she later raised two beautiful children, Erskine and Marva Hills.

In 1968 Helena moved to Houston, Texas to give herself and children a better life. Not having completed middle school herself, she obtained her GED upon arriving to Houston and worked at Ben Taub and Park Plaza Hospitals, eventually retiring from Ben Taub in 1993. Instilling the value of education in her children, she supported Erskine and Marva through high school in the US and sent both to college at Texas Southern University. A housekeeper, a mother, a grandmother, an aunt, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a gardener, a chef, and a beautician, there was little Helena couldn’t do well. With a huge heart, she loved everyone, even those she just met, often baking cakes and crocheting blankets for her doctors, pharmacy workers and family friends alike.

Helena was preceded in death by her parents, Tommy Hills and Rosetta Felix, her 7 siblings, with James being her favorite, and daughter Marva John. She is survived by her son, Erskine Hills, daughter in law, Bernadette Mathew, son in law, Herbert John, grandsons Sean and Jeremiah Hills, granddaughters Adrienne Skidmore, Eboney, Tiffany, and Marisol Hills, Ashley and Michelle John, and a host of great-grandchildren, family and friends.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Helena’s name to the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America at https://www.sicklecelldisease.org/