Michaela (Mica) & Clarence Nicholls

I knew Sheila for 50 years, she was a dear, true friend of mine. I shared a house with her for 2 years in Matuga in Kwale District, Kenya, where I taught. I was a newly qualified teacher and the school was a small girls boarding school in the rural area so I was pretty lonely and scared. Then came Sheila and immediately we took to each other like a house on fire.

We would often make trips to Kwale (town a few miles away from us) to visit the Irish Catholic priests who were our good friends. It helped break the boredom in the ‘bush’. The priests ran a Junior Seminary there.

We made several memorable trips in the country in her beige Volkswagen Beetle and even drove to Tanzania in it.

We would sit up late into the night exchanging stories and having some good laughs. We were surprised when the teachers in the staffroom the next morning would ask us if we heard the hyenas at night. We never heard them despite being up very late until it dawned on us that we were “the laughing hyenas”. Mind you there were wild animals around at the time.

I could go on and on…

When my husband and I visited England in 2016, I called her and wasn’t she delighted to hear from me! She booked into a hotel in St. Austell, Cornwall where we were staying and spent a fabulous time with us.

Last August, we were again in England, and I called her. She was very happy to hear me and we chatted for quite a while; however, she said she couldn’t come to see me as she wasn’t keeping well. That was the last I heard from her. We were unable to keep in touch regularly as she wasn’t available on mobile phone or email.

I am deeply saddened to hear of her passing on and I shall never forget my dear, good friend Sheila. Sheila was a very kind, generous and friendly person and a devout Catholic. I’ve run out of adjectives to describe her. May her soul rest in eternal peace.

To her family, I did meet a brother and sister in Matuga, my husband and I offer our deepest sympathies and condolences.

Michaela & Clarence Nicholls