Sheila was born in the Ilford Maternity Home on 7th May 1931. She was the third of four children, Jack and Soos being her elder sisters and Rog her younger brother. Like many of her generation she was evacuated during the war and sent to Wales for safety. On her return to her family she attended Woodford County High School for girls and completed her education there.
In 1948 she married George Ford and started her married life in Barking. She had three children, George in April 1949, Linda in June 1950 and David in December 1951. While they were all very young she trained as a teacher at Avery Hill College in Greenwich travelling to and from college each day on her motorbike, no mean feat with a home and three young children to care for.
Her first teaching position was at Gascoigne Secondary Modern School in Barking where she gained great kudos among the teenage boys because she arrived at school in black leathers on a motorbike.
In 1962 the family moved out to the country at Hook End near Brentwood. After teaching in schools in Ipswich and Chelmsford Sheila eventually took up a position at Brays Grove Comprehensive School in Harlow where she was head of the P.E. department. At the time of her retirement she was acting Head at Brays Grove. During this time she was heavily involved in sailing activities and in the early 1960s bought the beautiful Sea Lavender, an elegant sailing yacht built in 1905, and spent many happy hours sailing her around the east coast of Essex and Suffolk with family and friends.
Sadly around 1970 her marriage to George broke up and she went to live in a pretty little cottage on the banks of the River Blackwater in Maldon. In 1973 she married Alan Cross and they moved to Creeting St Mary for a short time then, in 1974 they moved to Brick Kiln Farm where she spent the rest of her life.
Brick Kiln Farm was a project and much time was spent turning it from a scruffy farm to a comfortable cottage with extensive gardens. She grew enough to keep the whole family in fruit and vegetables delighting the grandchildren who spent many happy hours picking strawberries, podding broad beans and generally helping out. 
In her later years the garden became more difficult for her to manage and eventually the vegetable plots became lawns although the fruit trees continued to keep Sheila and the family in plums, greengages and apples.
In 2015 Alan passed away and Sheila continued to live at Brick Kiln Farm until Christmas 2019 when she was admitted to hospital. It was discovered that she was suffering from advanced cancer of the pancreas and on March 9th passed away peacefully at the Braintree Nursing Home.
She is sadly missed by all her family and friends.