Ramona Helitha Henry

Love Lives On

Early Life

Ramona Helitha Henry began her journey on July 17, 1955, beneath the warm Caribbean skies of St. Joseph, Trinidad, in the West Indies. She was the daughter of Yolanda Hendricks and George Arthur Lawrence, and was also lovingly raised by her devoted stepfather, Arnim Mahwah. At fourteen, she immigrated to New York City, where she played tennis and bowled at Wingate High School, graduating in 1973. In 1985 she earned her associate’s degree in business management from LaGuardia Community College, the first of many paths she would travel.

Passions & Personality

Ramona read constantly, played guitar, and collected stamps, imagining all the places she hoped to one day send postcards home from. She was an avid writer and journaler who filled countless notebooks with poetry and reflections on the world. She enjoyed watercolor and acrylic painting, and loved Star Trek and Star Wars with the devotion of someone who never outgrew a childlike sense of wonder. Ramona was a fan of the quiz show Jeopardy!, and owned more editions of Monopoly than she might like to admit. She never turned down crab legs or cheesecake, especially her own famous no-bake, five-ingredient lemon cheesecake.

Career

Ramona gave herself fully to every kind of work. In the 1980s, while raising three children, she ran a home-based business baking and decorating wedding and birthday cakes. In the 1990s, she welcomed travelers as a ticket agent for Pan Am and Eastern Airlines. She later spent a season as a real estate agent before beginning her career as a tax preparer for H&R Block in the 2000s, where she worked for more than 15 years.

A Calling to Heal

Her most rewarding work was as an Integrative Healer. In 1993, she graduated from the Swedish Institute of Massage Therapy and, in the same year, became a certified hypnotherapist. In 2025, she completed training as a Shamanic Healing Energy Practitioner and, in her final two years, served with the Healers' Network in Indianapolis.

Love as Legacy

Ramona's true gift was never a credential or career; it was love, given relentlessly and unconditionally, especially to those in need or suffering. She taught her children, and everyone she met, to see the pain in the world without turning away from it, and to meet it with love rather than fear. She did not live this perfectly, but she lived it on purpose, day after day, in every space she entered. It was the legacy she worked to leave behind: proof that one person, choosing love again and again, can leave the world a little more healed than she found it.

Faith

Like a sunflower that cannot help but grow toward the light, Ramona's faith grew wherever God planted her, always finding belonging wherever she went. In 2025, she found her way to Emerge Church, and immediately her spirit felt at home, as though she had finally arrived at the place she had been growing toward all along. It was there, held in the deep, eternal, and unconditional love of that small but mighty family, that she armored up to battle ovarian cancer, never once alone. In May 2026, surrounded by her church family, she stood in the baptismal waters and declared that her life belonged to Christ.

Her Final Battle

When cancer came, she met it with faith, grace, courage, and without surrender. Her family is deeply grateful to Emerge Church, LIVESTRONG at the YMCA, and the Little Red Door Cancer Agency for their tender care. The coaches and community from these organizations were especially crucial, surrounding Ramona with a village that never let her walk the journey alone.

Those She Leaves Behind

Ramona leaves behind her 90 year-old mother, Yolanda; her children, Eugene Kenol (Lisa), Dr. Olivia Cronin (Justin), and Julie Alcaraz (Armando); her 12 grandchildren, Alexia and Alana (children of Eugene and Lisa), Henok, Mirlene, Dawit, Dean, James, Jacques, Nigel, and Ananya (children of Olivia and Justin), and Isabelle and Emma (children of Julie and Armando); her great-grandchild, Roman; and her siblings, Meryl Lawrence, George Arthur Lawrence, Jr., Joseph "Roger" Lawrence, and Darryl Lawrence. 

Her Unfinished Dream

It was Ramona's lifelong dream to climb Machu Picchu and journey through Peru with the shamanic healing community, a trip cancer never allowed her to complete. Her children will make it for her, carrying her name and spirit up through the clouds she yearned to stand beneath. In the Sacred Valley of Peru, some part of her will finally rest among the peaks she spent a lifetime longing to see.

Rest Now

Ramona was a healer, a mother, a daughter, a grandmother, a dreamer, and above all, a faithful teacher of love. She leaves behind a world softened by her presence, touched by her compassion, and forever brightened by the light of the love she poured so freely into others.

Rest now, Ramona, in the peace of God’s everlasting arms. Your healing hands and faithful heart have completed their sacred work. Your life was a light that time cannot dim. Your love lives on.

Services for Ramona will be held Monday, September 14, 2026 at Emerge Church, 211 S Merrill St, Fortville, IN 46040. Friends and family are welcome to gather for a public visitation from 11:00am - 1:00pm, followed by a Celebration of Ramona's life at 1:00pm at the church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in honor of Ramona be sent to Emerge Church (https://www.emerge317.church/give), LiveStrong at the YMCA (https://www.livestrong.org/what-we-do/program/livestrong-ymca), or the Little Red Door Cancer Agency (https://www.littlereddoor.org/donate)

Indiana Funeral Care is honored to be assisting the family with Ramona's arrangements.