In Loving Memory of My Mother Veronica Mae Shields

Friends and Family,

I am deeply saddened to announce that our mother, Veronica Mae Shields has made her journey home. She died peacefully in the early morning of Sunday, January 7th, 2024. Our family is devastated as she was home to us and someone that held us all together. She was our strength when we had none. She was the highlight of our day with her humor, smile and laugh. It came natural to her. The only solace we have found is in knowing she is no longer suffering. Her children, my brothers and I would like to celebrate her life and her legacy by laying her to rest with all family and friends present as soon as reasonably possible.

We will send out the details as soon as we can to all those who wish to be with us— we welcome you.

We are asking for your help to ensure she is celebrated, remembered, and laid to rest peacefully next to her father, Chief Lorenzo Shields Sr.

We appreciate every condolence and contribution. Your contribution will be used to fund travel, funeral expenses, and ensuring her belongings are handled appropriately.

Mitakuye Osayin - Children of Veronica Mae Shields

Here is a snapshot of who my mother was and is in spirit— She loved her children. She loved caring for others. I’ve seen her fight many battles on her own without any back up. She protected us as well as family and friends. She was definitely an underdog but never a weak one. Even during the toughest of times she carried us through with tears in her eyes and now we will carry her with tears in ours. 

Her life was full of people who thought she was the coolest person on earth and she was. She was the type of person who you would immediately be drawn to because of how down to earth she was and how she could turn any situation into the funniest thing ever. 

She also could flip the switch and put you in your place but you never felt like she didn’t love you. She told it like it was in a monumental effort to get you to do better. 

She also had so much knowledge to give about life, love, and parenting. Just being by her, you would learn so many things… then she would turn to you and laugh in a teasing kind of way because compared to her you knew nothing haha 

She could also tell you so many things about the Sicangu way of life, history, ceremonies, traditions… I loved that about her. She was modern yet you could tell she was always connected to Mother Earth. 

She was a beautiful woman. I remember when I was little, she would just be sitting there in the living room after cooking for like 10 people and cleaning the entire house and I would look at her like WOW. She’s a superwoman. I appreciated everything she did because most of the time she did it alone. 

I also remember my brothers and I would jump up and start cleaning as soon as she walked in the room hahaha 

She had a certain expectation of you and you knew it. It didn’t matter who you were. 

I remember one time I went walking to the grocery store with her to get groceries— on the way back, we had arms full of groceries and she slipped and I tried to stop her from falling and we both went down. We sat there on the sidewalk laughing until we couldn’t breathe anymore ahah

P.S. Feel free to send me any memories, funny stories, or photos you have of my mom, she would’ve wanted that.