Sally Melissa Emert Schmoll

Sally Melissa Emert Schmoll, 58 of Indianapolis, passed away peacefully on Sunday November 1, 2020. She was born on September 26, 1962 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Robert and Mary Emert. She was born the 5th in succession of 7 children. Her siblings are made up of Susan Faust (Jerry); Sandy O’Connell (Michael); Robert Emert (Rebecca); Kurt Emert (Barbra); Stephanie Embrey (John); Eric Emert – (Deceased 2015). Between her siblings and their extended Families and her Husband’s Family, Sally had more than enough nieces and nephews and grandchildren to keep her happy and smiling and busy.

Sally grew up in the suburb of Bridgeton on the west side of St. Louis on Fee Fee Road. The Family home was on a large piece of property in a tree lined rural style attractive community. The Family property had a pond where ducks and geese also called their home. One special duck, DUKE THE DUCK, actually felt comfortable enough to walk boldly into and through the home and upstairs at will. When a nest containing duck eggs was discovered, in an upstairs closet, the mistaken “gendered” DUKE quickly was amended and renamed DUTCHESS.

The driveway lazily curved down the hillside to their home. Sally’s Grandpa, Lex, lived up at the top of the hill near the street. Sally and her siblings would catch the bus up the hill next to Grandpa’s home. She and her brother’s and sister’s loved their Grandpa and she loved to spend time with Grandpa at his home. She tells the story that, while with Grandpa, she would learn what Lex was serving for dinner. Then, she would call home and inquire what was on the menu there for the evening. This would allow her the option to select the meal of her choice to suit her palate.

Sally attended St. Jude Grade School. From there, she went on to graduate from Pattonville High School in 1980. She went on to college at the University of Missouri St. Louis and secured degrees in business marketing and management.

Sally has always been a HUGE animal lover. She worked at the humane center, near her home, to put that animal nurturing feeling into practice with her own personal touch. She brought many a critter home in an attempt to foster them with the hope of Mom and Dad allowing them to become her own companions in her home. Both Bob and Mary would, “though they must protest”, break out the milk bottle and nipple and help Sally to nurse these young animals to health and a comfortable life and, Sally, with the hope that she could keep them as her own.

Sally worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken with some of her closest of friends and some family members. Clean up and close out at the end of a night of serving chicken would include taking home leftovers of chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. A KFC Delicacy! She went on to begin working at TARGET which would be her primary career for 18 years. In the early 1990’s, she moved her residence to work for TARGET in Chicago. She lived in downtown of Chicago off of the Miracle Mile with an elevated view of the Chicago River from her home. It cost more per month to park her car than she paid for her residence. She loved the downtown city life that Chicago offered. Sally was a vibrant and social gal that always lived Life to the fullest. Chicago provided that night life and she made the most of it!

In the mid 1990’s, Sally moved to the Palos Hills suburbs of Chicago to manage a different TARGET store. It was in this time of her life that her “future husband – to be”, Greg Schmoll, would be introduced into her life by a their very close common friend, Kathy. Sally had arranged a trip to travel to the island of Antigua with a group of friends. Various personal circumstances came to pass that whittled down her guest list to only Sally and Kathy and her husband. To round out the group, Kathy asked Greg if he would like to go on this trip and fill in and even-out the boy-girl ratio to an even number, not to mention that he could also enjoy the sun and sand and companionship of Sally and their two friends. He would have been a fool to say no. Sally’s smile and outgoing and fun filled personality quickly sunk her “claws” into this poor boy. He was quickly swept off of his feet by this lassie. He didn’t stand a chance, but it should be noted that, he would never be accused of complaining or fighting what would ultimately be the inevitable.

After a wonderful week in the Caribbean, they returned to Chicago and Sally went to work on Monday to find her office filled with 12 dozen roses to the point that it rendered her office virtually unusable. That was Greg’s way of expressing his thanks to Sally for the great vacation that they had spent in the Caribbean. The rest is history! They long distance dated from Indianapolis to Chicago for a period of time until she moved from Chicago back to St. Louis to be closer to her Family again. Eventually, Greg proposed to Sally in her home in St. Charles in 1997. They were married on July 11, 1998 at which point, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to begin her new life as Sally Melissa Emert Schmoll.

With that change in her life, she made the decision to get out of the retail business. She studied hard and took up her new career as a travel agent. This was quite a benefit as, Greg and Sally loved to travel. They honeymooned in Hawaii. Their destination go-to of choice was definitely locations throughout the Caribbean. The Mexican Rivera, Cancun, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Bonaire, St. Maarten, the U.S. and the British Virgin Islands, Turks and Cacaos, St. Lucia, Barbados and many others. So as not to get bored, they also included a very memorable trip to Tahiti and Bora Bora and other locations with Tim and Sandy, what were and had become two of their closest friends in the world.

Their lives were “Bliss” and Sally enjoyed and gathered her new friends in Indianapolis. Her magnetic personality made it so easy for her to become a friend with anyone. She developed and maintained an avid workout program where she stayed healthy and gathered so many new life friends.
Then, a noticeable reduction in energy in May 2016 caused her to seek a medical assessment. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer was diagnosed and had taken over her body. Both she and Greg’s life plans were immediately redirected to the joint fight against this horrible disease. She had a major surgery and chemo to bring the cancer under control. The cancer did return twice but, aggressive chemotherapy was again able to bring it back under control. Over her 4 ½ year battle with cancer, they were predominantly successful. Sally and Greg and their “Team Sal’” worked endlessly to keep her spirits elevated and maintain a positive attitude and establish the best possible medical team to lead the charge in this fight. But in the 4th return of this cancer in the Spring of 2020, the cancer had gained an advantage and it took over her body to the point that, she had eventually lost the fight and they raised the white flag. She and Greg made the Life decision to engage a Hospice and End of Life Team to proceed to the best and most comfortable conclusion of her life’s end. The finest of Hospice Care was summoned to stop her incredible pain and other major complications and to provide and to take expert care of all of Sally’s needs. They were all living Angels. After weeks in the IU Hospital and the fine medical attention that they were able to provide, she was able to return to her home to be with her Great Dane dog, Levi, and her Maine Coon Cat, Kehoe, and her husband. Sally was a warrior in this fight that finally took her life. Within a week back in her home, she passed away in Greg’s arms on Sunday night, November 01st, at 10:30 PM and Sally was finally at Peace and without pain. She was then able to leave this world and be with the Lord and her Mother and Father and her brother Eric in Heaven.
While she will be missed by all that knew her, her magnetic and vibrant personality and her beautiful smile will remain forever in the minds of all of those that who loved her.

Please pray for this courageous Woman and her family and friends and all those affected by this terrible disease. If you will, please express your love for this fine woman and others through donations to be directed to the SIMON CANCER CENTER and the SCHWARZ CANCER CENTER in Indianapolis. These were both key to giving Greg and Sally an additional 4 years of life together to make a total of 22 loving years as husband and wife and the best years of their lives.

God bless this amazing woman. She fought the tough fight. As was said, she was a warrior to be admired by all. She will be missed by all that knew her. While all feel the loss of her passing, please rejoice in her freedom to move on into her future life in Heaven.

God Bless You, Sally.
Godspeed.

Friends and family are invited to gather beginning at 11:00 am on Saturday November 14, 2020 at Flanner Buchanan – Broad Ripple (1305 E. Broad Ripple Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46220), where a celebration of life service will begin at 1:00 pm. *Masks ARE required*

Please sign the online guest register, and click here to view Sally’s virtual service.