Born March 22, 1943
Madison, Maine
Died Feb. 12, 2025
Bristol, Vermont
Details of services
A celebration of Sheila’s life is planned for this summer. In lieu of flowers, donations in Sheila’s memory may be sent to ACHH&H, PO Box 754, Middlebury, VT 05753 or the Bristol Rescue Squad, PO Box 227, Bristol, VT 05443.
Sheila Kelly Henderson, 81, passed peacefully at her home in Bristol, VT on February 12, 2025. She had lived with Parkinsons since 2019.
She was born in Madison, Maine on March 22, 1943, to Stephen and Pearl (Reed) Kelly. She met her husband, David, at Madison High School and they graduated in 1961. She graduated from Maine Medical Nursing School in Portland in 1964. They married that same year and celebrated 60 years of marriage on June 6, 2024.
Sheila worked as an RN in Philadelphia to support David through medical school. Their journey together brought them from Philadelphia to Burlington Vermont, to North Dakota, and ultimately back to Vermont, moving to Bristol in 1975 to raise their family and set up their medical practice from which they both retired in 2009. In retirement, she enjoyed traveling, camping, and most of all, her grandchildren.
Sheila was a caregiver at her very core. This was evident in her profession as a nurse, as a volunteer EMT on the Bristol Rescue Squad, as a sister, daughter, friend, mother, grandmother, and especially as a wife.
She is predeceased by her parents, her brothers, Donald Kelly, Alva Reed and his wife Shirley, her sister, Joyce Estes, brother in-laws, Leo Estes, Dennis Barron, Richard Saucier, and David’s parents, Harold and Lucille Henderson.
She is survived by her husband, David Henderson of Bristol, and her 3 children: Erin Henderson (Bryan Serinese) of Williston, Keely Henderson (Matt Germon) of Lincoln, and Tim Henderson (Jenny Endris Henderson) of Felt, Idaho. Her 6 grandchildren: Hugo, Gus, and Maeve Serinese, Charlie and Noah Germon, and Henry Henderson; her two sisters Carolee Barron and Gail Saucier of Madison, Maine, and her in-laws Jan Kelly and Tim and Linda Henderson, as well as many nieces and nephews.
We would like to thank Addison County Home Health and Hospice and Lisa Palmer for their care of Sheila and our family, and the community who reached out to support us during this difficult time, including members of the Bristol First Baptist Church of which she was a member for 50 years.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Sheila Kelly Henderson.