Shelley Sewell McDonald, 64, of Highland Village, Texas, passed away on March 14, 2025, at her home.

The Celebration of Life for Shelley will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, April 4, at the Bessie Mitchell House at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens in Heritage Park in the city of Grapevine, Texas.  The house and deck will be open from 12:00 to 4:00.  Please come visit with each other before and after the service.  The surrounding botanical gardens are open to everyone.  As she requested, her family will spread her ashes into the Gulf of Mexico on a trip to Port Aransas.

Shelley was born in Fort Worth to Dr. John Sewell and Elaine Scott Sewell on April 16, 1960.  She attended Lily B. Clayton and Bluebonnet elementary schools, and McLean Middle School.  She graduated from Trinity Valley School in Fort Worth and received her degree in Nursing from TWU in Denton in 1982.  Shelley worked as a nurse in primary care in the DFW area for years, including a position as ER charge nurse at Trinity Medical Center of Carrolton, where her sons were born. She devoted the last 25 years of her career to being a case manager for patients, helping people navigate their recovery.  Her spirit and tenacity for life plus her familiarity with healthcare systems rewarded her with several extra years with her family.

Shelley was a competitive athlete in multiple sports: diving and swimming at Colonial Country Club, tennis and soccer and cheerleading at Trinity Valley, where she was female athlete of the year twice.  Soccer, volleyball, golf, and canoeing were activities she loved to do through her adult years.  She met her first husband John Hason via soccer; his father was her goalkeeping trainer.  They married in 1983 and had two sons. Her second husband Rick McDonald coached his and her sons in soccer, and they played on coed teams together.  They married in 2003, joining families and raising their four sons together. Shelley also kept her gang of soccer girls close to her heart.  These teammates have supported her through everything.

Shelley was in her element in the water: lake, river, ocean, pool, hot tub.  Boating on Lake Lewisville, camping on the beach in Port Aransas, canoeing on the Brazos River, she was gloriously happy. Relaxing on a beach, she loved to unwind and read a book or go fishing.  She was brought up catching fish in the saltwater of Port Aransas.  Every year she would share the story of how Grampa would take his little boat out in the ocean and catch fish so big, too big to fit in his boat, so he had to drag them alongside it to get back to the dock. She found peace connecting with nature and passed that passion on to her children, and to her friends.

Shelley and Rick made their home the center of festive gatherings at every opportunity. Whatever occasion, you could count on her to radiate energy, mischief, laughter, and generosity.  She opened her home, cooked wonderful meals for a crowd (smoked salmon!), spilled the tea, and partied with gusto with lifelong soccer friends, career-long work friends, and a big loving family.  When camping at Ray Roberts Lake State Park and many other spots around Texas and Oklahoma, Shelley and Rick gathered new and old friends and family around their big trailer and had a fine time away from home too.

Shelley is survived by husband Rick McDonald, son John Hason and his wife Audrey Hason, son Chris Hason, son Ian McDonald and his partner Kori Jones, and son Dillon McDonald.  Her brothers and sister are Toddy Sewell, John Sewell, Alan Sewell and his wife Cheryl Sewell.  Her grandchildren are Avery Hason, River Hason, Rain Hason, and Harper McDonald.  Cousin Lori Wallace and schoolmate Carol Stucker Carr have been like sisters and remained close throughout the years.

If you would care to donate a gift in Shelley's memory, the nonprofit Texas Native Health (texasnativehealth.org) is an organization that serves two of Shelley's passions, Native people in this country and health.

We are forever grateful for the extraordinary care the nurses and doctors at UT Southwestern Clements Hospital gave Shelley, starting with her liver transplant in 2018.  A special thanks (thanks is not a strong enough word) to Arjmand Mufti, MD, and his team at the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Their expertise and compassion granted her time to meet her four grandchildren.  Shelley never let the many medical challenges over the next seven years stop her from living life to the fullest.