Heidi -Meme- Schneider

Hedwig (Heidi) Schneider, who despite her small stature served as the fierce protector of her family, passed away Saturday, February 13. She was 90.

Throughout her life she had many titles, but her favorite one was being Meme to her two grandchildren, her two great-grandchildren and countless others who came to know her as their Meme, too.
She was born on March 20, 1925, in Czechoslovakia in Bohemia-Silesia where she was the third oldest of nine children. When asked about her childhood, she fondly recalled how their Christmas trees were lit with real candles. After World War II, she moved to Heidelberg, Germany, to attend Heidelberg University where she studied to become a nurse.
In 1956, she came to America after being sponsored by a couple in Irvington on the east side of Indianapolis with the Catholic Relief Agency. She taught herself English and began a career at Western Electric. Her son, Jeffrey, was born in 1959. She raised him in Irvington and lived a life that personified the zeal and stubbornness of a true eastsider. She retired from Western Electric in 1985 after briefly moving to Louisiana with the company.

She came home to care for her first granddaughter, Chelsea Marie, and then her grandson, Daniel Joseph. For them, she helped build a wonderful childhood filled with daily trips to Ellenberger Park and the library and where afternoon snacks of Saltine crackers always came with butter. She taught them the importance of being kind and working hard.
She loved blueberries, took a belly dancing class and knitted socks. She never learned to drive, preferring to walk pretty much everywhere. Even until a few weeks before her death, she took stairs at a run. She loved to garden and could grow pretty much anything – even a cactus (in Indiana.)
She was a proud Catholic. Everyone in her immediate family got calls when white smoke swirled from the Vatican after the selections of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis because the “bells were ringing!” She was extremely independent, and her independence was important to her.
She had the “Meme instinct” of knowing when something was wrong with someone. She gave everyone a second chance and taught others to do the same. She loved politics, and her family will miss hearing her yell at the Sunday morning news shows. She believed being an informed member of society was of great importance.
Her spirit lives on in her family, but especially in her great-granddaughter, Emma, who even at 2 is already showing the kind of enthusiasm and strength with which Meme lived her life.
Meme hardly ever got sick or complained. But in November, she knew something was wrong and took a rare trip to the doctor and was soon diagnosed with cancer. The hospital staff were shocked to learn when they asked their 90-year-old patient what medicines she took, and she simply replied “coffee.” In the weeks that followed, Meme reminded her family to have hope. She told us instead of looking down, we should look up to see the sky. She still played the role of protector – gathering strength and celebrating birthdays and holidays.
She also told the story of when she first heard of America. She was in elementary school in Czechoslovakia when her teacher spoke of fields of cotton. She came home and excitedly told her grandmother, who said to her “Hedwig, go see the cotton then.” Decades later, living in Louisiana, her friend took her to the countryside. There she saw the fields, with cotton swirling into the air like clouds. She remembers taking in the view with satisfaction and thinking to herself, “Well, guess what. I did.”

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Heidi's memory to The Little Red Door or Indiana Children's Wish Fund.