‘Walking, talking art’
Combing through her racks of eccentric vintage dresses, Sheila Ash tops off her selected outfit with the perfect hat. Ash, 69, likes to call herself “walking, talking art.” Most Noe Valley residents and visitors know her as the owner of Noe’s Nest bed and breakfast. Born without a functioning left ear, Ash was dressed by her mother in different bonnets and hats. Most of Ash’s family died in Poland during World War II, but her parents managed to escape. As a young girl, she wished she could have grown up with aunties, uncles and grandparents. At age 4, she made a promise to herself that she would live each day to the fullest for them. Arriving in San Francisco in 1977, she saved enough money to buy her first house in 1982, on 23rd Street. Ash — a single mother of three, schoolteacher and fashion designer — rented out rooms to guests to make extra money. The absence of her left ear has caused her jaw to retract and eye to droop. She has had eight surgeries and injections to halt the retraction and lift her eye and cheek. “Had it not been for my handicap, which is not really visible, I might not have been the woman I am,” Ash said. She hopes to encourage confidence in other women. “Age does not define me,” Ash said. “Even my clothes do not define me or my job. It’s my easygoing spirit and how I focus on others. If I wear something outrageous and it makes someone smile, then I have accomplished what I have set out to do.”