Heloisa Saboya de Albuquerque was born in 1930 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the middle daughter of her beloved parents, Heloisa and José Silvestre. She grew up in Rio surrounded by a large extended family to whom she was very dear.  After earning a college degree in business, she worked for several years as a secretary and translator. In September 1956, she realized her dream of coming to the United States to work and travel.  She resided in Delaware, and experienced snow for the first time that winter, becoming an avid, self-taught skier.  In 1957, on her way to Vermont by train, she met a New York Times reporter who was so fascinated by her vivacity that he featured the “26-year old brunette from Rio de Janeiro” in the March 7^th edition of The New York Times.  After describing a series of mishaps and adventures in arranging her ski trips — which she had initiated with a party composed of a Norwegian couple, an Egyptian friend, and two Chilean girls: “We felt like the League of Nations”  — she is further quoted as saying, “Maybe you think I am one of those Brazilian nuts… But I plan to return home one of these days and there is no snow there.  I like snow.”

Heloisa did not return permanently to Brazil though.  In 1959 she met Robert F. Erwin of Philadelphia and they married in April the following year.  Daughters Mary Theresa (Terry Coelho), Patricia, and Kathleen were born in quick succession as the family moved from Pennsylvania to upstate New York, then back to Pennsylvania in 1969.  Heloisa always made family, especially her children, her highest priority. She remained devoted to her family in Rio, frequently hosting cousins, aunts, nieces and her parents in the US, and sending her daughters to Brazil to develop close ties.  She also nurtured warm relationships with the extended Erwin clan that lasted to the end of her life, and created many lifelong friendships in Brazil and the US. 

Heloisa was generous, energetic and full of life and laughter.  She exuded a unique combination of glamour, graciousness, and down-to-earth practicality, and was undaunted by any challenge. Besides skiing, she loved tennis, swimming and sailing, and taught herself auto mechanics, furniture upholstery, and even home renovation, converting an attic into an extra bedroom/home office in the 1970s almost single-handedly. She believed deeply in community service, and as a Girl Scout leader arranged for the troop to volunteer as hospital “candy stripers,” equine rehabilitation aides, and campsite/wilderness maintenance workers. She never forgot a birthday or anniversary, even when her memory began to fail in her final years, and is described by those she left behind as their “favorite” cousin, aunt, and neighbor.

In January 1990 she became a grandmother for the first time, and she perhaps never knew greater joy than the time she spent thereafter with her six grandchildren: Jessica, Christopher, Stephanie and Kevin Coelho, Gregory and Maya Franklin, and grandcats Toby and Tucker. 

She retired from government service in 1996, and embarked on travel that included not only return trips to Brazil, but also visits to Europe and Alaska. In 2007, Heloisa moved to Berkeley, CA to be closer to Patricia, Kathleen, and their families.  She embraced her new life with a positive attitude and boundless energy, walking two miles a day to swim at the Berkeley Y, trekking to the Albany Senior Center for a weekly bridge game, and making new friends at every turn.  As both her heart and her memory weakened in her final years, her activities became more restricted, but she remained as active as possible, traveling as recently as Thanksgiving, 2015 to visit her daughter Terry and family in their new home in North Carolina.

In her final year, besides her daughters Patricia and Kathleen, she was cared for lovingly by granddaughter Maya, Elisabeth Earley, Rosalyn Lemmo, and especially Pauline Heimuli, to whom we are deeply grateful. We are also grateful for the heartfelt memories and funny stories of her life so many have shared with us since her passing.  We miss her terribly and ask you to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.          

Terry, Patricia, Kathleen