Helga Maxwell

Our beloved wife, mother and Oma, left us to play with the angels in God's garden.

Helga was born in Hamburg, Germany and spent her days growing up in Berlin. Helga became a U.S. citizen in Abilene, Texas in 1961.

She knitted her first set of potholders at the age of 4, and from then on she was rarely found without needlework in her hands. In San Antonio she became a member of the Quilting Guild where she sewed many quilts for her children and her home. While recovering from cancer surgery in Florida, Helga discovered her love for painting. This love led her close friends there to call her Granma Moses. Shelling also became a passion and she learned the Sanibel "stoop". The world could have been ending and she would still stand at the edge of the beach yelling with glee that after 2 years she found that one elusive shell.

She was active in the community, volunteering for the Red Cross, the PTA, and the Institute of Texan Cultures. She was the editor of several newspapers, including the Frankfurt American in Germany. She was President of the San Antonio Chapter of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge in the early 1980's. In the 1960's, while living in Kentucky, she was a volunteer with the Bluegrass Council for the Blind. In recent years, she enjoyed knitting caps and booties for preemies at Christa Santa Rosa Hospital, volunteering for the Universal City Library and participating in Toastmasters International of Universal City, an organization to which she transferred from Florida, and truly loved. Unfortunately her time with these activities was cut short by COPD.

Helga's family will miss her wicked sense of humor and sage advice for those who sought it.

She is survived by the love of her life, her husband of 58 years, Arthur Maxwell who she married in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1956. She is also survived by her children and grandchildren: daughter Doris and her husband Richard Brown, sons Arthur Maxwell II and Robert Maxwell and his wife Sharon; Grandchildren Christopher Brown and his wife Treena, Kathryn Barlow and her husband Matt, Jessica Bowen and her husband Doug, Benjamin Maxwell, and Abigail Maxwell.

The family would like to thank Heart to Heart Hospice for their love and caring during the final days.

Graveside Service will be 8:30 a.m., Saturday, May 23, 2015 at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Instead of flowers please consider a donation to the Universal City Library or to your favorite animal shelter.