Shelter Island Reporter obituary: Erica Jean Virtue
Erica Jean Virtue, beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend, passed away on April 21, 2026, after a short but courageous battle with ALS. She was 40 years old.
She was born on June 16, 1985, in Voorhees, New Jersey to Jeph and Julie Virtue. She lived on the Upper West Side and spent her final days surrounded by those who loved her most, her husband, Arel English; her daughter, Lilian Virtue English; her sister, Jennifer Virtue; and her parents, Jeph and Julie Virtue.
Erica grew up in Southern Alberta and British Columbia. A special place for the Virtues was the family cabin on Baynes Lake, BC. Erica’s childhood—and her life—was filled with time at the cabin with family and friends. Erica was born with a sense of adventure that she nourished throughout her life. The Virtue family enjoyed exploring, planting in her an early love and curiosity for different cultures and places. She channeled that curiosity into her education.
She attended Central Memorial High School in Calgary, which focused on French language and culinary arts, and she ultimately became trilingual in French and Spanish. She worked at a bike shop, embarked on many cycling adventures, and won first place in the Canada Cup in Fernie, BC. After graduation, she traded classrooms for the outdoors. She hiked across Costa Rica with Outward Bound before she brought her energy to the University of Victoria.
At UVic, Erica earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and met the love of her life, Arel English. Arel was an early member of the UVic Sailing Club. Erica got involved, and her contributions grew the club tremendously. Erica was instrumental in the club procuring their first fleet of sailboats and a place to put them, and 20 years later donated the money for the club to replace those same boats. Together Erica and Arel shared youthful adventure, road trips, new cities, and a growing partnership, that would define their life together.
True to a family tradition she admired, Erica went on to earn her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law, where she distinguished herself as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Journal. She gained experience as an intern for a Superior Court Judge, The Office of Bar Counsel, at Calyon Investment Bank, and at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. It was during law school that she forged some of her most treasured friendships.
Undeterred by the uncertainties of the 2008 recession, Erica made a bold and defining pivot, and she set aside a promising legal career to enter the world of technology. It was a risk that paid off in every sense. She brought to the industry a rare combination of unique gifts: her father’s analytical mind, her mother’s creative instincts, and a legal training that gave her a precision of thought. She had a remarkable ability to quickly distill a complex problem, identify what mattered, and communicate it with clarity.
She began her transition into tech at Lambda Legal, where she arrived willing to work and willing to learn. From there, she helped people discover the best places to eat and drink at GrubHub and Thrillist, before she joined Meta, where she spent a decade building the future.
She worked at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human experience and led design initiatives for Facebook Recommendations, Check-ins, Pages, News, and Today In. She ultimately rose to Product Design Director at Meta Reality Labs, a role that placed her among a small number of female directors at a company of 80,000 people, where she helped shape the emerging landscape of virtual and augmented reality. It was Erica’s team that oversaw wearables, such as smart glasses. ALS forced her to leave that work far too soon.
Erica and Arel were, in every sense, a team. Their relationship was rooted in complementary natures, Arel loved to talk, and Erica loved to listen. They built a life of mutual encouragement, shared adventure, and quiet devotion, moving through homes in Victoria, Boston, New York City, and Shelter Island, many of which they gave names, Strawbridge III and Menantic House among them.
Both born in the United States and raised in Canada, they shared the distinctive bond of dual citizenship, a status they joyfully secured for Lily earlier this year.
Shelter Island became one of the most influential places in her life. Arel’s role as a sailing instructor at Camp Quinipet drew her east and planted the seed for their future adventures there. Through it she found a community of dear friends.
Shelter Island became the home that Erica and Arel also found in each other. She and Arel bought their first home there, Strawbridge III, and eventually their dream home on Menantic Creek. They were married at the Pridwin in 2016, surrounded by family and friends. They boated, lobstered, bird-watched, and cultivated oysters. They made memories there that will live on in everyone who shared them.
The greatest joys in Erica’s life were Arel and their daughter, Lily. Born in July 2019, Lily arrived and reordered everything, beautifully. Erica spent Lily’s first six months learning the rhythms of motherhood on Shelter Island, having already lovingly assembled a collection of hair bows before her daughter drew her first breath. She was a devoted mother.
She was Lily’s fiercest advocate and took delight in watching her learn including dance, swimming, skating, and piano. Erica brought her tenacity to navigating New York City’s kindergarten admissions process, and secured Lily a place at a girls’ school she will attend through twelfth grade. Lily’s education brought Erica comfort as she navigated her illness. Erica’s deepest heartbreak was knowing she would not be there to watch her daughter grow up.
Erica never sought material things. What she sought was experience, the company of people she loved, a good meal, a cappuccino, and the simplicity of nature. She was an avid cyclist and passionate skier whose favorite mountain adventures included heli-skiing and cat skiing. Over the course of her life, she visited far corners of the world.
She traveled with friends and family throughout the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, Europe, and Asia. After her diagnosis, she took a round-the-world trip with Arel and Lily to Hawaii, Japan, France, and England, and subsequent trips to Serbia, Bosnia, Turkey, and Morocco, where they rode camels. She never stopped moving forward.
In 2014, Erica, like so many of her generation, participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge without a second thought. A decade later, she could not have imagined it would become personal. Her symptoms began with persistent foot drop that refused to resolve despite careful treatment and follow-up. She researched, problem-solved, and advocated for herself through every step. When the drop spread to her other foot, she kept going. She kept following up. She kept pushing for answers, until she received a diagnosis no one should ever have to receive: motor neuron disease, known as ALS, with a natural life expectancy of two to five years.
She responded the way she responded to everything, with dignity, grace, and a characteristic desire not to burden anyone around her. She pursued newly developed treatments, undertook specialized physical therapy, and traveled to pursue these treatments with her mother, Arel, and Lily.
One of the most meaningful developments after her diagnosis was participating in the community of Her ALS Story, a group of women navigating terminal illness at the very peak of life, balancing careers, children, and joy in the face of the unimaginable. They gave her a forum, a sense of solidarity, and a space to process everything with people who truly understood. It was a profound comfort.
Erica found solace in science and in the knowledge that the Ice Bucket Challenge she had once participated in so casually had helped drive real and rapid advances in ALS research, expanded studies, gene discovery, and clinical trials. The defunding of those trials during the rapid progression of her own disease was a painful blow.
She handled all of it the same way she handled everything: privately, with poise, and without complaint, continuing to advise and support the people she loved, right up until the very end.
Erica had wondered how she would leave her mark on this world. She has left her mark in the colleagues whose work she shaped, the friends whose lives she enriched, and the daughter she raised with fierce and tender love. Her mark is in the quiet example she set of how to work hard, love well, and face the unthinkable with grace.
She is survived by her husband, Arel English; her daughter, Lilian Virtue English; her parents, Jeph and Julie Virtue of Calgary, Alberta; her sister, Jennifer Virtue (Brandon) of Fernie, British Columbia; her nephew, Dason; her father-in-law, Dan English (Svetlana) of London, Ontario; her mother-in-law, Nada Jurisich-Fontana (Joseph) of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; her sister-in-law, Jelena Djukic of Toronto, Ontario; and her grandmother-in-law, Rose Jurisich of Lethbridge Alberta; and her large extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins. She is also survived by dear friends who have been like family to her, including dear friends from throughout her life, friends such as Laura Sannicandro Devine, Jaclyn Sluzar, Greg Nissen (Amanda), Maddie Braun (Emily), and Pete Whinn (Dominick).
A memorial service will be held at a later date in 2026, following a private cremation.
A memorial bench will be installed in Central Park, near Lily’s school, as a place of bereavement for those who loved her, but particularly for Lily, as she grows up.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that that you hold Arel and Lily close.
If you wish to give, the family asks that you consider a donation toward the installation of a memorial bench in Central Park, (link available at https://secure.centralparknyc.org/site/TR/Events/General?pg=personal&px=2599037&fr_id=1292 ) or a contribution to Lily’s 529 Plan (link to page available at http://www.ugift529.com/) (UGift code: P4F-F9H).
Donations may also be made to: Her ALS Story (link to page available at https://secure.givelively.org/donate/hark-als/her-als-story); ALS Therapy Development Institute (link to page available at https://www.als.net/donate/); ALS One (link to page available at https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E253535&id=99).
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Erica Jean Virtue, please visit
legacy.com/legacy/erica-virtue?utm_source=copiedlink&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=memoriamsconfirmationshare
