Sheila Leskinen

Sheila Claire Leskinen, 86, departed this life peacefully just minutes before her husband Mel could get to her side at the Hospice Cottage in the Meadow very early in the morning on June 25th, 2024, in Yakima, Washington. Being a two-time survivor of cancer, she fought till the end a long and very brave battle with lung cancer. She was born on Friday, December 3rd, 1937, to Edward L and Lillian (Heitz) Feeney in Moline, Illinois. Sheila was the third oldest in a family of nine children in the Feeney family. She was raised and graduated from the Immaculate Conception Academy High School in Davenport, Iowa. After getting divorced from her first husband, she moved to Chicago with her three young children. When her children were grown, she returned to school and was trained as an addiction counselor. Sheila received a master’s degree in 1989 to become a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. In June 1989, Sheila met Mel Leskinen at a National Square Dance Convention in Oklahoma City. Their romance began long-distance as Mel lived in Anchorage, Alaska and Sheila in a NW suburb of Chicago, Illinois. After about three years of phone calls, cards, gifts, and/or travels, they were engaged with a scheduled wedding date of June 19, 1992. The wedding had to be postponed until December 19, 1992, due to Sheila’s first encounter with Lymphoma cancer. The last four digits of their home phone number is 1219, which is the same as the month and day we were married. After the wedding, they drove Sheila’s car to Seattle to be transported to Anchorage. Sheila wasn’t too excited to arrive in Anchorage in the dead of winter, but she survived. They started looking for a bigger home, as Mel’s was too small for the two of them and all their stuff. They soon located a new home that they both really loved and occasionally a moose wandered through the front yard. The 32 years they were married, they only missed going to Kauai, Hawaii three times which was a requirement for Sheila to avoid the January cold weather of Alaska. In Alaska she squared and round danced, bicycled, hiked, cross-country skied, was the Queen Bee of the Church’s Red Hat Society, decorated for all seasons and holidays and , sewed, watched sunsets at midnight, traveled all over Alaska and the Lower 48 dancing and/or visiting family and friends. She also saw the sites and beauty of Alaska via private airplane, helicopter flights, Alaska Railroad and the State Ferry system. While in Anchorage she established a private Marriage and Family Therapist practice and continued to work with individuals affected by a family member’s addiction. In 2000 Sheila was diagnosed with her second bout with cancer, this time being breast cancer. It’s then they started looking ahead to Mel’s retirement date and relocating to the Lower 48. After visiting about 10-12 areas over a period of five to six years in the Pacific Northwest, Yakima ended the number one choice. They moved to Yakima in 2006 to build their dream home with great views of the mountains and valley. They enjoyed the four seasons, warm summer days, and all the fresh fruit and vegetables. She worked part-time as a life coach with adult children of alcoholic family members. In Washington she enjoyed many of the same activities as in Alaska such as squared and round dancing, bicycling, hiking, decorating for all different seasons and holidays, sewing, book clubs, Jazzercise, being a member of P.E.O. Chapter P-BD and Yakima Newcomers & Friends, she continued traveling around the states dancing, site seeing and/or visiting family and friends, and was an original Standardized Patient (SP) in 2008 at the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences. In Yakima, she established a private practice as a Life Coach to coach people who have been touched by another’s addiction. In June 2022, Sheila was diagnosed with cancer for a third time, this time being lung cancer. Treatments were started and things looked positive for a cure or stabilization. But in December 2023 the lung cancer tumor expanded thus collapsing the left lung with no available or real permanent cure. Sheila then entered Memorial Home Care Hospice Services. She was on the home Hospice care program until the day she was transferred to the Hospice Cottage in the Meadow and departed Yakima the morning of June 25th. Sheila is survived by her loving and care giver husband Mel; sons Kenneth Mitchell Monson (Terri) of Vacaville, CA and Todd Monson (Rose) of Milton, FL, sisters Angie Cassady of Arlington Heights, IL and Sarah Hitch of Tulsa, OK; brother Matt Feeney (Mary) of Eldridge, IA; brothers-in-law Jim Goggins of The Villages, FL and Bob Bastian of Sycamore, IL; sister-in-law Sue Feeney of The Villages, FL; five grandchildren Kristen, Van, Haley, Steve and Emily and two great-grandsons Lincoln and Riggins and many nieces and nephews. Plus, two very special little teddy bears, Little Mel and Ruckus. She was preceded in death by her parents; daughter Lisa Aniballi; sisters Rita Goggins, Kate Bastian and Jacqueline Feeney; brothers Michael Feeney (Mary Anne) and Patrick ‘Pat’ Feeney and brother-in-law Frank Cassady. Sheila wanted upon her departure from this life, to make a “Gift of My Body” donation for use and study by future osteopathic medical doctors to the Anatomy Department at the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, Yakima, WA. Sheila’s service has been scheduled for Saturday, July 20th, 2024, at 11:00 AM PST at the Wesley United Methodist Church (WUMC) at 14 N 48th Ave, Yakima, WA 98908. The service will also be live streamed and available to view during or after the service on the Church’s web site or at: https://www.youtube.com/c/wesleyofyakima Following the service, a reception will be available in the WUMC Fellowship Hall for fellowship, visiting and further remembering Sheila and the life she lived and people she touched. To honor Sheila’s memory, please consider making a charitable donation to the WUMC Sheila’s Labyrinth Project Fund or the Ohana Mammography Center at the Memorial Hospital Foundation at 3111 Tieton Dr, Yakima, WA 98902. 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