Sheila C. Groden

Sheila Catherine Groden, 83 of Crystal Lake passed away peacetully at Storypoint on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.

“All things are at odds when God sets a thinker loose on the planet.” Edith Hamilton

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is wasted.” Aesop

It is with sorrow we announce the passing of Sheila Groden, our beloved mother and grandmother. Sheila Catherine FitzGerald was born in South Bend, Indiana on April 25, 1943 to Catherine (neé Miles and William FitzGerald. Her parents nicknamed her Bunny because she vas born on Easter Sunday. The family quickly relocated to Ada, Michigan where Sheila and her younger sister Elizabeth (Cookie) spent many happy childhood years playing on the Thornapple River. The family moved to Crystal Lake, IL when Sheila was a senior.

She graduated from Central High School in 1961.

Sheila went on to college at Beloit and University of New Mexico before transferring to Northern Illinois University. This may have been due to her interesting new neighbor, William Groden. She graduated with a Bachelor's in Education in 1965, and married the love of her life William Groden in June of 1965 as well. They would remain married for 39 years until his sudden passing in 2004. She became an English teacher at Crystal Lake Central herself, where she remained for 30 years, retiring but continuing to sub for many years. In 1976 their daughter Colleen Catherine was born.

Sheila was a tiny woman with a big personality. She was passionate about the value of a good education. She was a voluminous lifelong reader from ancient myths to short stories to true crime to horror (including a terrifying collection of Stephen King novels her daughter found and read all of-some nightmares over that, but the man is an excellent writer).

Somehow though she always came back to much more sedate choices in her magazines: Martha Stewart Living, Good Housekeeping, and her daughter’s favorite, Vanity Fair.

Sheila loved her job at CLC English Dept. For those that may remember, her favorite classes to teach were freshmen Skills and sophomore Heroes. She loved helping students do their career projects in skills to begin exploring their future path. In Heroes, she taught students classics like The Iliad and The Odyssey. She loved passing along those stories to her daughter and grandchildren as well. Her favorite part was reminding everyone how timely the classics are. Her family is looking forward to watching the Odyssey this summer in theaters and wishing she were with us.

Sheila loved traveling and visiting her family in Naples, FL and Cape Cod, Mass. She enjoyed beach walking,, shelling ,and spotting dolphins. She was known among family as a ferocious adversary in Trivial Pursuit and Jeopardy. She often was paired with visitors much less gifted with trivia to tamp down on her winning streaks but still frequently managed to come out on top. Sheila loved hunting for post-Christmas bargain deals, much to the chagrin of her sister, niece, and daughter who missed the “let’s start with the sale rack” gene in the family, Nevertheless the shopping trips in Florida persisted, with everyone going off after their own thing, whether it be wrapping paper, cards, Breyer model horses, clothes, or shoes.

Sheila did not approve of daytime TV viewing. However, she did have several notable exceptions for herself and her loved ones, including but not limited to:

-The OJ Simpson Trial and any coverage of it
-Royal weddings, coronations, and funerals
-The Olympics and Olympic coverage
-Chicago Bulls games
-The Weather Channel for hurricane updates
-Big concert events like LiveAid

Events like these were the only acceptable reason to turn that TV on in the daytime. She did make an exception for Jeopardy when she was in assisted living.

Sheila was a lifelong lover of animals and was blessed to have many pets in her life. She adored her dogs, whether she got one as a puppy, adult, purebred or rescue. She went on to rescue a cat and take in Colleen’s lop bunny after he was found out in the dorm at Boulder. Of course, she especially cherished her daughter and granddaughter's beloved horses and ponies. She loved surprising family with paintings of them, or paying for extra treats for them. One of her favorite things until the very end was the family animal update and occasional visit.

Sheila loved being with her family. She read constantly to her daughter and grandchildren. Favorites included the Babar books to Colleen and picture books like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs to Seth and Kendall. She was an excellent cook, known for her Fudge Sundae Pie, Chicken Milano, Seven Layer Salad, and smoothies for her grandkids.She adored hearing about Kendall’s horses and competitions right up until the very end. She cherished watching Seth’s wakeboard videos and was thrilled he will be attending Michigan State University in her beloved home state of MI. Her family will miss her wit, wisdom, sense of humor, and unintended one liners over the years. “They call them the Badlands for a reason, Dan."

Sheila is survived by her loving daughter and son in law Colleen and Dan Johnson, her beloved grandchildren Seth and Kendall, a cherished sister Elizabeth Claypool, three wonderful nieces, Meghan Claypool Schenavar, Kathy Willis, and Kelly Cavanaugh, and a loving nephew Thomas Groden. She is also survived by several great nieces and nephews Alexander and Victoria Schenavar, Colin Willis. and Cedric and Gabrielle Cavanaugh.

She was proceeded in death by her loving husband Bill and her parents, William and Catherine FitzGerald, and two brothers in law, David Claypool and Thomas Groden.

A visitation will be held on Thursday, June 4th from 8:30 until prayers at 9:15 at Davenport Family Funeral Home 419 E. Terra Cotta Ave. Crystal Lake. Mass will be at 10 am at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church 451 W. Terra Cotta Ave Crystal Lake. Burial will follow at Crystal Lake Memorial Park.

In Lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a favorite charity of your choice.