Age 77, world traveller “extraordinaire” passed away on Oct 31 with loved ones at her side. She was the daughter of William Chisholm and Kathleen (Boyle) Chisholm of Linwood Antigonish Co. Nova Scotia.
After finishing her studies at St. Francis Xavier University, Sheilah began her working career in Montreal. Here she met and married John Foster, of Belfast, N.Ireland. Her career soon changed to being the mother of their two little girls. A return to Nova Scotia, led to her next career working at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax where she went on to join the pathology department and became a cytologist.
When her girls were old enough to spread their wings Sheilah, with an urge to travel, did the same - working in cytology labs first in Bermuda, then Ottawa, and finally Berlin, where she joined a private practice for nine years. With her immensely curious spirit and Berlin as her base, she took endless opportunities to travel throughout Europe as well as further afield.
On retiring from Berlin, she returned to Nova Scotia, but not for long. There was still so much of the world to see. She began with a two-year journey, studying Spanish in Ecuador and then setting off throughout the South & Central Americas. It was then home to Nova Scotia for a summer before heading to Southeast Asia, Australasia, Africa and beyond.
And so it went for over a decade as her retirement saw her visit 65 plus countries across all seven continents, Antarctica included!
In her travels and the pursuit of new experiences, with a constant desire to learn Sheilah avoided the popular tourist centres, opting to live where she could be more in touch with the people and cultures of the places she visited. She embraced a free-spirited routine of travelling to warm countries in the winter months and connecting with her family and friends around the globe in between spending her summers in Nova Scotia. Covid couldn’t stop her and Mexico, in particular Mazatlán, became her warm winter home in the last years.
Sheliah’s outgoing yet laid back, easy to laugh personality, and sharp wit meant many dear friends were made across her travels. With her playfully competitive nature these friendships were most often cemented over a shared game, from golf to mahjong and everything in between! Sheilah was well known and often ahead of the times with her culinary curiosity. She was an avid walker - be it in nature or in discovering a new city, an appreciator of the performing arts and enjoyed painting in recent years.
A truly inspiring, strongly independent, adventurous, and intrepid explorer, Sheilah fully embodied the live in the moment mentality, actively seeking out what brought sunshine to her life and shining hers on those around her.
Sheilah leaves behind, her two loving daughters, Siobhán Alexandra Monique and Kathleen Elizabeth, her siblings, Bill (Colleen)Chisholm, Ambrose (Frances)Chisholm, Mary (Desmond)O’Neill, Frances Dove, Bernice (Brian)Gray, numerous nephews, nieces, and extended family, as well as the large number of kindred spirits and likeminded friends she had made in her travels around the world. Besides her parents she was predeceased by her husband John and brother Hugh.
Sheilah was dearly loved and will be greatly missed. XXXX
Cremation has taken place. Please leave condolences and shared memories below.
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