Veronica Hess Shelford
In Memoriam
10/14/1947–8/12/2025
Posted on Veronica's Facebook page by her husband, Graeme Shelford:
This is Graeme. Veronica passed away yesterday and there will be no more posts. Nobody knows if there is a heaven or hell after death, (we both think there is neither) but we do know that there is a living hell, and Veronica just went through it. Lung cancer diagnosis last November followed immediately by surgery. Then chemo then radiation - no halting this aggressive cancer. Each check up was worse than the last. 8 months of nausea, searing pain increasing in intensity and it just kept getting worse. When she lost her ability to type and found talking difficult, she opted for Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) and received it the next day. In her final hours she expressed love and gratitude to her family, friends, community, to Canada for allowing MAID, and to the great healthcare system and workers who took such good, loving care of her. Such a lovely person all around who never smoked or did anything to provoke this hell. She gave extensively to her community and is much loved by them.— 
feeling sad.
Notice of Veronica's Passing:
Farewell Veronica Shelford
Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 10:05 AM
With her family around her and Graeme by her side, Veronica passed peacefully on Tuesday, August 12, at Cowichan District Hospital. She sent a message of love to Thetis: "Send my love to everyone--too many to count. I'm so glad to live where there are too many to count." The Shelford and Hess Families
Veronica left instructions for her burial in a manner to avoid polluting the earth with harsh chemicals. The local fire department dug Veronica's plot by hand since she was so loved in the community as a result of her years of volunteer work.
St. Margaret’s Cemetery: Looking for Assistance
Date:Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Dear Thetis Island friends,
as you have heard our dear community member Veronica Shelford died this past Tuesday. Veronica has requested a natural burial in St. Margaret’s Cemetery. She will be technically the first to be buried in this more natural way. That means the burial must happen within a couple of days.
St. Margaret’s Cemetery is making an urgent call out to the community for someone to come forward who has a small backhoe capable of digging a plot approx. 4 feet wide by 4 feet deep. Preferably with rubber treads.
Veronica contributed so much to our community. I am trusting that there is someone who can come forward to assist in making her burial as beautiful as we can.
Please contact Suzanne.sarioglu@gmail.com Or call 250- 246-9965 or 250-886-6965
The above was copied from: https://www.thetisposts.ca/ on August 13, 2025.
Veronica sent this photo and bio in April 2012, a couple of years before our 50th reunion:
Name: Veronica (Hess) Shelford
Age Now: 64
Web Page URL: www.cufracliffs.com and www.moorehillgraphics.com
Marital status: married
Children: none
Diplomas and certificates acquired since graduating from MRHS: B.A. from McGill
Present or Last Job (Company, Position, Year of retirement): Semi-retired from self-employment, still running small B&B and doing occasional graphics jobs.
Other jobs you have held: teaching, clerical, administrative, research, potter
Most fun job you ever held: potting, definitely. No contest! In fact, anything to do with clay.
If retired how do you keep busy? More like, how do you find a moment to yourself? I do a lot of community work, love my garden, and read a lot. Thetis Island is a lovely place (there are a few pictures at our B&B website, at http://www.thetisisland.net/business/cufracliffs/aboutthetis.html).
Health: Much improved since two corneal transplants and reconstruction of my ears. Recently diagnosed with Post Polio Syndrome although I suspect it has been developing for the last 15 years, which did eventually put an end to working with clay, which I regret but that's life. Too busy to dwell on it.
Family members who are now deceased: my dad, who died in '93, and mom who died in 2011.
Most memorable moment at MRHS: My long-term memory is lousy. But I definitely remember being yelled at by Miss Theobald more than once. And band with Doc Jones was fun. And Mr. Logan saved my bacon by giving me extra lessons in Latin, so I could pass the prerequisites and not have to take it at McGill.
Dumbest moment at MRHS: too many to count, and undoubtedly more than I remember...
Any other info you wish to share......
In case there is anyone out there who remembers my family, here's us all together at Christmas five years ago. From left to right: Graeme (my husband), Vevy Hess (my mother, 90 in the photo), Claire (sister-in-law), Matt (brother), Stephen (nephew), Penn (Bouvier/Wolfhound/Shepherd cross) and me. Location is my mother's living room in her home in Parksville, BC.
Below are a couple of pictures from a memorable course I took at MISSA (Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts) in 2001. It was a week on sculpting the human head. We started from a skull, and had to build a head in clay from the skull up, learning all the muscles etc as we went along. Sounds gruesome but it didn't feel that way at the time—it was absolutely fascinating, and we felt nothing but empathy and gratitude to the people whose bones we met and got to know. I felt particularly privileged to work from a skull that was at least 500 years old, from the dismantled graveyard of a monastery in Denmark (our teacher, Heather Spears, is from there.) The first shot was fairly early in the construction process, and the second was almost finished. I highly recommend MISSA, by the way—they have some great courses.
 |
 |