‘Feisty and fearless’ mom pushed her daughters to do best
SANDRA LADEWIG
Sandra Ladewig would warn her daughters’ boyfriends that they had better take care of her girls. Or else. Ladewig stood perhaps 5foot-3. But the mother was always there to protect, encourage and support her two girls.
“She was feisty and fearless,” said Samantha Ladewig, 28. “She took care of us.”
Sandra “Sandy” Nicholson grew up with five older siblings in Bellaire. She attended the University of Houston. She met her husband, Brian, when she was working in Austin and went to a dance hall on a trip back home.
Brian Ladewig liked country dancing and playing pool. Though he had just bought a cold beer, he said yes when she asked him to dance. She was too cute to refuse. They married in 1991 and had two daughters, Samantha and Shelby.
Their mother always pushed them to do their best, whether it was school or volleyball, Samantha Ladewig said. And she encouraged them to pursue their passions. “Whatever makes you happy, I’m happy with,” Ladewig recalled her mother saying, “so go and do that.”
The daughters did: Samantha pursued marine science and Shelby wildlife conservation.
“She’s always been my biggest fan,” said Shelby Ladewig, 22. “She was always there showing me you can do this.”
Their mother worked for more than 20 years as a manager at Commercial Resource Capital, which processes loans. She likened her coworkers to family. She also had a knack for nutrition, ready to recommend vitamins or supplements for any ailment.
She hosted family Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, cooking up a storm at their home near Jersey Village. She cheered on the Astros and loved the Florida beaches, encouraging her daughters to travel. In August, Samantha moved to New Zealand for her post-graduate degree.
Never giving up was a life motto for the mom.
Ladewig wrestled with health issues — including pulmonary fibrosis, which made it hard to breathe. Sometimes, she got winded. In recent years, she was on oxygen. She hoped to get a lung transplant. The family took extra care as the coronavirus spread, but, somehow, she contracted the illness and died at 54.
“We all really thought she was going to pull through this because she always had,” Samantha Ladewig said.
Samantha flew home from New Zealand four days before her mom passed on April 17. Shelby planned to move next for her schoolwork to Spain. When they leave home for their studies, they’ll be chasing their dreams, like their mother wanted.