Heather Schilling - Finding Strength and Inspiration After The Loss Of A Child, The Power Of Community, and Teaching The Next Generation.

Jul 6

"Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean —
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
-Mary Oliver

Heather Schilling with her tattoo for her daughter Elizabeth. - June 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

The human experience is masked in symbolism and adorn in fine, luxurious words in hopes to get closer to understanding this “one wild and precious life”. We use a ring to symbolize love, and though I agree it that is true, I also believe it symbolizes a mother’s strength. There is something to be said about human strength in general, but add motherhood on top of it and it is sometime all together different.

Born in Columbia City but raised in North Manchester and few countering towns, Heather Schilling is a mother, teacher, and community builder. Community has been the through line that has constantly showed itself in each stage of life and served to be a cornerstone for Schilling

"I thinking building a community and having the sense of community is critical in all aspects of life, whether it is where I live, where I choose to worship, the people I hang out with, or even my classroom"

North Manchester has been home to Schilling, if community was the thread that weaves through out her life then North Manchester is the needle. In raising her two children Elizabeth and Lucas, she felt it was important tone community minded.

“They were very active in our communities. They were in plays, musicals, 4-H, athletics, and dance. All those things that I would say represents small town America.”

During Schilling career as a teacher there has been many folds that has shaped her career.

“I taught at Whitco High School for about 12 and when 9-11 happened my mind began to shift. I started asking myself what am I going to do with my life?”

Taking a year off teaching she quickly realized that being a stay at home mom was not her and ended up volunteering everywhere she could.

“I volunteered in Elizabeth’s fourth grade classroom during that time, I taught classes at our church, and then I also did student teaching supervision at Manchester University as an adjunct.”

Soon she was offered a full time job at Manchester University and in our conversation she noted that thread of community once more.

“That sense of community there really laid a foundation for what was going to happen with both of my kids as they chose universities. They both chose small universities, even though they had a love for Purdue from their dad, they wanted what they saw at Manchester and the relationships that could be formed and the communities that can be built. They ended up with just that.”

There can never be too much conversation about the importance of community but when it becomes a backbone to someone, the context is once again stronger.

“I bring all that up because that community aspect is a theme that runs through my whole life and played a huge role in Elizabeth’s life.”

Heather Schilling - June 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt

Soon after Elizabeth had just landed for a semester in Copenhagen she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

“Within a half an hour of finding out that had a brain tumor, our pastor was in our house. My best friends were in my homes. One was asking for insurance cards to start the process. Family was getting airline tickets. We had another colleague of mine who came, brought food, and told us they would take care of Lucas. This community really wrapped around us and throughout Elizabeth’s whole journey.”

Describing her daughter as resilient, Schilling tells us the quote that Elizabeth took on.

“She stood in the storm and the wind didn’t blow her away, she adjusted her sails. She latched onto that mantra because she knew she control the fact that she had a brain tumor, but she could control how she approached.”

Spending a semester at home with her family, Schilling describe Elizabeth’s mindset.

“With her mantra, it really helped her think about how to stay present in the moment. She wanted to live with a positive mindset.”

Returning to college, Elizabeth graduated with her class and stayed in Granville, Ohio where she met her life time partner.

“In 2019, she got engaged and then a month later her MRI showed what looked like growth on her original tumor but we soon found out it was a second brain tumor. She had this rare cancer of the spinal fluid called Leptomeningeal.

Here she was. She just got engaged and she was starting to think about what most young woman do, wedding plans and things like that, but that wasn’t what nature said was going to happen.”

After six weeks of radiation to her head and spine, and having chemotherapy, Schilling found herself in a position perspective.

“Watching her navigate that at age 27 and 28 years old, as a mom, you realize that you really raised a resilient kind. But I wasn’t easy and I don’t want journey was. She would have days where she would get really mad or sad, all the range of emotions, but she worked so hard at trying to stay present.”

Finding a way to bring happiness in each day became important as they all navigated it together.

“We would often ask her what a good day looked like. It might be pedicures, going and getting coffee, or might walk around the park.”

During this time Covid hit causing, in a way, a forward sense of motion that would allow Schilling to be present with her daughter. With her job becoming a remote position, she was able to move to Ohio.

“That really gave me a chance to walk with her through it all.”

After two year with Glioblastoma, in November of 2021, Elizabeth decided to stop treatments.

“She told me she wanted to come home. We were in the doctor’s office and I thought she meant back home to Will (her fiancee), but what she wanted was to come back home to North Manchester.”

Once again the community was faithful.

“She had friend the would come and visit. The local church pastor would come and check in on her. There was a point, though the timeline is a little fuzzy, but probably about a month before she died a huge group of our community showed up. It was probably November, it was cold and rainy, and they stood outside on our back porch and sand all her favorite songs. That was love.”

When I spoke with her about this time in her life and explained to me about the importance of it not defining her.

“That is a huge piece of my story but it is not what defines who I'm. Even Elizebeth, we had countless conversations about how her illness didn’t define who she was. In that sense, as well as our family, it does define us. It did shape us though and lit the fire of my life’s mission.”

There are many different reasons and life circumstance that has shaped Schillings but through it all she is described as having a “Poly Anna attitude.”

“Of course I know life hasn’t always been rosy. Being a raised by a single dad who was trying to make ends meet, loosing a child to brain cancer, I don’t know if I would say I have rose colored glasses because I have the reality, but I have figured out that I have on shot at every day. If I don’t use that day then it is gone. I cant change the fact that this happened but as a mom, a woman, a person; how can I use what I learned through it all?”

Along with Elizabeth’s bother, best friend, and father, Schillings started a foundation called the “Elizabeth Schilling Adjust Your Sails Foundation, Incorporated.” With two primary pillars; raise money for brain cancer research and empower people to face life’s difficult challenges.

“On her birthday December 22nd of 2025, we and several board member’s delivered a check to James Cancer Center at Ohio State University, and we have fully funded an endowment in Elizabeth’s name.”

Called the Elizabeth Schilling Neuro Oncology Research Fund, as long as Ohio State is a university with a research clinic there, Elizabeth’s endowment will be used.

It is easy to see Schillings desire to make this world a better place and live a life full of purpose. She continues to poor into the next generation as a professor of education at Manchester University.

“When it comes to my students, I want to give them a sense of strength, that there are people who are there for them and they can face anything life gives them.”

There is something to an edicator’s heart that is special, though there are difference reasons for the start of their career it always is brought back to the students.

“Here is why I love teaching, whether is high school or college, watching them realize they are not as helpless as they thought there. Having conversations with them in the mist of something hard whether it is life circumstances or a bad grade, I tell them it doesn’t define who they are.”

I could continue on about this amazing guest but I shall allow you find out even more in the episode! Thank you so much to Heather Schilling for sharing her story and Elizabeth’s story. It was truly an honor to meet you and sit across the table from you! You are such an inspiration and, as I told you, I am jealous of your students.

Grab your cup of coffee and I suggest a note book because there is just so much amazing life advice in this episode.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0garCy7FAuKaVfhQHu2SAP?si=afBrRYCxQCSSZ5EBmo1KDw

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/here-in-my-time/id1858774701?i=1000775633636

https://youtu.be/WWyk5FTN3D

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