Friends express pride, grief, regret at memorial for slain London woman

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A London woman who died on the weekend was remembered Tuesday by friends as someone who was caring and whose life was going in the right direction after living on the streets for years.

Dozens of people attended the memorial for Cheryl Sheldon on Tuesday night at the Central Branch of the London Public Library.

A table was set up with candles and a picture of Sheldon as tributes were made in her honour. The memorial was held at a weekly Pizza and Prayers meeting organized by Impact Church, open to members of London’s street community.

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Sheldon, 62, was found by police officers with life-threatening injuries in the area of Wharncliffe Road North and Western Road at about midnight on Friday, London police said. She died later in hospital.

George Kenneth Curtis, 44, of London was charged over the weekend with second-degree murder in Sheldon’s death.

Friends of Sheldon said Curtis was her boyfriend. A friend said Sheldon moved into an apartment at 345 Wharncliffe Rd. N. operated by London & Middlesex Community Housing in December after years of living on the street. 

London police issued a statement about intimate partner violence when announcing the charge against Curtis, describing it as “a threat to the safety and wellbeing of our community.”

Stefan Nichol, the pastor of Impact Church, said Sheldon was a regular at the Tuesday prayer meetings at the library branch.

Nichol said he first met her through Ark Aid Street Mission, a social services organization in London where he worked as a community manager. Sheldon had been living on the streets for years, where she struggled with health and addiction issues, he said. Groups like the one meeting on Tuesday evening gave her structure, Nichol said, adding that she was “genuinely appreciative” of the support services she received.

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“She was caring once you got past the tough exterior,” he said. “But that’s a shield you gotta put up with after many years living in the streets.”

Nichol said Sheldon’s death has been “really hard to take.

“I think it especially hard on a lot of community members who maybe saw some signs and felt they should have acted and didn’t.”

Nichol said he also knows Curtis, the man accused of killing Sheldon.

“We all told Cheryl to get away but for some reason she kept bringing him back in.”

Jessica Brockett said he met Sheldon through her husband Douglas Howarth. It wasn’t long before the two women were referring to each other as sisters, Brockett said.

She said her favourite memories with Sheldon involved talking and laughing together over tea and coffee.

Standing outside Sheldon’s memorial on Tuesday, Brockett said she felt “emotionally destroyed,” as she recalled the last time she saw Sheldon toward the end of May.

“(Cheryl) looked at me and she’s like, ‘I have this problem,’” Brockett said.

After asking Sheldon if she felt safe, Brockett said Sheldon responded that she did not.

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“I said, ‘Try to find a way to leave,’” Brockett said.

After hearing the news of her friend’s death on Monday, Brockett said she’s been crying ever since.

“I can’t believe she’s gone. I can’t believe it.”

Emma Worrall said she was “so proud” of Sheldon.

Worrall was working at Ark Aid Street Mission when she met Sheldon two years ago. She said she helped Sheldon move into her apartment just before Christmas.

“Her life was going in the right direction – getting housed,” she said.

But Sheldon didn’t feel safe in her living arrangement, Worrall said. “I tried to tell her to get help.

“A woman like that who has so much fierceness – how does something like that happen? How does she not get help?”

“Nobody could help her.”

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