Sheila M. Mason

Sheila Mason made her way home suddenly, but peacefully on April 8. She had been residing at Applewood Care Center in Winchester for about 2 years while they lovingly helped her manage some of her health needs. Sheila was a lifelong resident of the area and her family has generations of ties to the region.

She is the daughter of Richard Mason and Margaret (Trombley) Mason, step-daughter to Irene (Manch) Mason, already deceased. She is survived by her three siblings, Cindy (Mason) Llantada, Bill Mason, and Jon Mason and their long time spouses. Also, she has aunts and uncles, nieces, a nephew, grandnieces and nephews, godchildren, cousins and extended family. Although divorced, she maintained an important friendship with her former husband Ed Nims. While she never had her own biological children, she reached out in a very committed way to a family in her circles and made them her own. Family was the most important thing to her, and her cats, and her friendships…and good food. Her snarky, not-too-fresh humor and her huge heart led the way in everything she did.

She had enjoyed with pride a long-time position with MFS as an office manager, and prior to this, had worked many years for Peerless Insurance. Even though her career ended in 2004 or 2005 due to her health, it was not uncommon wherever she went for her to be met with warm conversations and familiar faces. Her relationships from her working years endured, again because of her goofball humor, her intelligence, her huge heart.

Sheila mostly had and did what she needed and liked. She never had anything too fancy, never particularly valued anything fancy or had any big fancy ideas about the world. Just not a fancy person. You wouldn’t look at her and think fancy thoughts. But your heart would open right up if you gave her a minute or two. She had a lot to teach if you just paid attention to her being her. You don’t have to have a lot, or even do a lot, to mean a lot and have a lot to offer. Many of us never figure this out and hold back. Thank you Sheila. So much was better for you being here, just being you, even when you were declining and changing. If we never said it enough, we’re sorry. Maybe at times we could’ve showed it more. It’s easy to just get into patterns. You’re very important, still, in more ways than you can know. We already miss you, but if we remember these things, you’ll stay with us and we’ll be better for it, and so will the people we are with. If you don’t know our family, and you’re reading this, you can learn from her too, just by thinking about what we wrote and applying it to your life. Put a little Sheila-shine in your day! And have some chocolate cream pie whenever you can.

Special thanks to the incredible staff at Applewood for always keeping love, safety, and home at the forefront of what they do… and for having cats. You made everything that wasn’t ok better and did what we couldn’t.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Applewood Care and Rehabilitation Center, maybe their Recreation program for entertainment or discretionary funds. They do so much with very little sometimes. If you would rather, consider a kitty rescue program of your choice.

Foley Funeral Home of 49 Court St, Keene, NH will be hosting a memorial service for our beloved Sheila, on Monday April 23, beginning with visitation at 10:00 a.m. A brief memorial service will be at 11:00 a.m. A time of sharing will follow before the procession to St. Joseph’s Cemetery, 610 Main St, where committal services will be offered. Please come and share your stories with us about Sheila. We would love to see you. She would love to have her people together laughing and thinking of her.