Sheila Jean Kermode (Griffin)

Sheila was born at Nurse Crebbin's house in Colby, she grew up in Cregneash and went to the Buchan School. Her parents initially farmed Cregneash farm and later Balla Ny Howe, the farm overlooking Port Erin (which was later knocked down to be replaced by Nigel Mansell, the racing driver's house). Sheila always loved Cregneash where she made lifelong  friends and had many fond memories of her time there to share.

Her parents moved to BallaFreer where she spent many hours playing Calamity Jane riding horses around the farm. It was while they lived at the farm that she met Paul, whom she later married. 

After leaving the farm, the family moved to the Cremona guest house on Circular Road (Illiam Dhone house is where the guest house used to be) Sheila and her sister Anne were enlisted by their mum to help which is where the idea "One doesn't do dishes" came from, Anne being left to do the dishes while Sheila listened to Elvis records.

Sheila worked for the Post Office until it was taken over by British Telecom (later Manx Telecom), she started her career as a telephonist, progressing through the company to various positions including compilation of the telephone directory (prior to the electronic era where every entry was manually created). 

Sheila was the Mayoress of Douglas between 1981-1982, a role which suited her sociable and charitable nature. 

Sheila was a member of the Soroptimists, set up the parent support charity PADA and regularly donated to charites that provided aid to animals and children.

Sheila loved to travel, she often visited her sister in Canada, extended family in Los Altos and spent many happy holidays with her family in Hamilton, Scotland. She travelled the world and was especially fond of India & Africa. Sheila had a love for Disney and would often book surprise trips (I say surprise, I mean the surprise would be that we ever made it there after the 3 days travel covering at least 3 continents...but she'd saved £35). Around 2000 Sheila and Paul visited Bulgaria and instantly fell in love with the country, Bulgaria was still heavily influenced by the communist era at the time so any foreign visitors had to sign in with the local police upon arrival - "All part of the adventure!" she would say. Sheila and Paul bought a house in a village which reminded them of Cregneash, over the next few years they fully rennovated the house and made a beautiful retreat where family and friends can still enjoy the serenity and peace of the village. Sheila made many friends in the village, it is traditional for the church bell to ring when a villager passes away, and even though Sheila was on the Isle of Man at the time of her death, the villagers rang the bell for her as soon as they heard of her passing - a very touching gesture which showed how highly thought of and accepted she had become during the years she spent there.