Elvira Borgstädt (aka Ehli Borgstadt), 67, of Cassville, passed away on December 3, 2017 after a heroic battle with multiple sclerosis. A graveside service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at Greenwood Cemetery, Platteville. The Melby Funeral Home & Crematory, Platteville, is serving the family. Online condolences may be made at www.melbyfh.com.

She is most easily described as a person who loved the world and all living things. She was a student, entrepreneur, and world traveler.

Born in 1950 and raised in Heilbronn, Germany she learned to love the arts, poetry and science. At 21 she immigrated to the USA and spent her early years in Michigan where she gave birth to her beloved daughter Vanessa. She earned an Associate's degree at Delta College and a M.A. at Western Michigan University. In 1980, she moved her family to Chicago and began Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago-Divinity School. Her studies focused on religion and literature with a concentration on the history of Christianity, particularly the mysticism of 13^th century Germany.

Much to her regret, she did not finish her dissertation. But never looking back, she entered the world of business in Chicago. In 1990, she opened an innovative commercial real estate consulting firm and became president of EBKO, Inc. She spent the rest of the decade building her business on an international level. Her civic involvement included serving on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago and the Japan-America Society. She also founded SIP, a summer intern program that placed inner city youth in paid internships with international corporations in Chicago, Germany, and Sommer study programs in Japan. She also led the effort to establish the ‘MS Support Group of Grant County' in Wisconsin.

Even though the diagnosis of MS struck Ehli in 1992, she did not retire from business until 2002 when she relocated to the Driftless area of Wisconsin. With her husband Gheorghe, she built a home on the bluffs of the Mississippi river. There she spent her remaining years researching and writing. Her greatest joy was in observing nature, nurturing friendships, and exploring the ultimate meaning of life. Her book of poetry If the Dead Could Sing was published in 2017 and is available worldwide.

Ehli died the way she lived, by taking full control of her end-of-life. She exercised her right to die with dignity when she could no longer endure the severity of her condition. She is survived by many of the people she loved, friends and family alike. In the USA her beloved husband Gheorghe Tinghili, her brother-in-law Emilian and his wife Moui Lim with daughter Lili; her daughter Vanessa with husband Dave, her grandsons Nicholas, Mathias and Miles; in Europe, her mother Frida, her sister Doris, her brother Karl Borgstädt, her nephews and nieces Alexander, Johanna, Laura, Rebecca, Fedor, Tabeah, Dshandra, Dorin and Alin. She was preceded in death by her beloved grandparents Friedrich and Olga Schwarzkopf, her aunt Erika Beck, her father Karlheinz, her sisters Ursula and Elke Borgstädt.

Ehli Borgstadt

June 15, 1950 - December 03, 2017

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