Sheila Jean Ehrig

She was preceded in death by her father Frederick William Joseph Hudson, her mother Jane Anderson Hudson and her beloved husband of 55 years Richard Gordon Ehrig.

Sheila and her sister grew up in England during World War II. She shared stories of having to run to the bomb shelter with her family at the bottom of the back garden to remain safe. Despite the circumstances and these frightening times, her most fond memories of her childhood in England were pleasant ones of time with her sister, her Mum, Father, and maternal and paternal grandparents. She loved her family’s garden filled with lettuces, runner beans, strawberries, rhubarb, carrots, radishes, sweet peas, and a variety of beautiful flowers – roses, hydrangeas, and delphinium.

When Sheila was a young girl she enjoyed outdoor activities – she especially loved jumping rope with friends – and playing a game of running through the rope. She often told a story of how one of her friend’s fathers would run towards the rope – do a couple of jumps and then exit and continue on his way home from work. This made the girls laugh.

Sheila was adventurous and well-liked by her friends. She was a good student and was served as a prefect at school. She had her own paper route. She mentioned often wearing roller skates while delivering her stack of newspapers. She also remembered riding on the back of her father’s motorcycle when she had a horrible toothache and needed to get to the to the dentist quickly and how she held on tight and swayed with the movement of the bike as her father drove.

In 1957 when Sheila was sixteen years old, a school friend had invited her over for a visit. The two girls were riding the train to her friend’s town when the train they were on collided with another train and the trains derailed. This event became known as the Lewisham Rail Crash which caused the deaths of 90 people and injured 173. Both Sheila and her friend were unharmed, but the event was something she never forgot. She felt fortunate to have survived, but also often thought of those who had lost their lives. It was something she often reflected on.

When she graduated from high school, she worked in an office in London. In 1958, she met Richard Gordon Ehrig an American serviceman in the Army who was stationed in Germany but was in England on military leave. He happened to be at the Lyceum Ballroom in London where he asked Sheila if she would dance with him. He courted Sheila by correspondence and the two fell in love. He asked her to marry him, and a year and many letters later -- with her parents’ permission--- he sponsored her to come to America in 1959 where they were married in the Baptist Church in Marshall, Texas. Sheila and Richard moved thirteen times in Texas. She worked several jobs – a novice nurse in a hospital, a switchboard operator for a telephone company, a receptionist for several companies and a bank. She secured the loan from the bank for their first new car that they purchased together and made it possible for Richard to complete his BA in History. Both of them worked jobs to fund his education and her continued support ensured he completed his MA in German. In 1971, after thirteen years of marriage they welcomed their daughter Kristi Anne Ehrig into the world – their only child.

Once Kristi was born, Sheila devoted her time to running the household and raising her daughter. By this time Richard and Sheila had moved into their permanent home in Dallas, Texas where Sheila was a homemaker. She enjoyed taking care of her family, gardening, spending time with friends, and planning the yearly vacation to Estes Park, Colorado. Later she attended college classes, enjoyed long walks, and regularly spent time with Richard at their favorite garden – the Dallas Arboretum. She was a devoted wife and mother. She was creative and had an artistic flair for decorating her home and painting watercolor cards with pressed flowers.

Her daughter and family remember her love, guidance, honesty, steadfastness, resilience, compassion, and the joy she found in the beauty of the world around her. Her neighbors often spoke of her generosity, kindness, and her love of nature.

She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.

She is survived by her sister Carol Anne Atkinson (neé Hudson); brother-in-law Kenneth Atkinson; daughter Kristi Anne Ehrig-Burgess; son-in-law Scott Paul Ehrig-Burgess; nephews Tracy and Kelly Teems; and brother-in-law Don Teems.

Her ashes will be interred in Dallas, Texas with her late husband Richard Gordon Ehrig and in the Hudson family burial site in Crayford, England.