Tejwant "Tej" Stead

Tejwant “Tej” Sandhu Stead, of Hooksett, NH, passed away on Sunday morning, August 25, 2024, at the Elliot Hospital in Manchester, NH, after a long and valiant battle to recover from complications of the heart surgery that she underwent nine months earlier. She was 77 years old.

Tej was born on March 19, 1947, in Multan, India (today part of Pakistan) to the late Dr. Charan S. Sandhu, a psychiatrist, and Janak Sandhu, a homemaker. Her birth occurred in the midst of the Partition of India into two countries, with her Hindu-Sikh parents forced to flee from what was to become Pakistan to the Indian side of Panjab. The family emigrated to the US when Tej was just one year old.

Tej and her two siblings grew up in the Midwest, with their parents eventually settling in Canton, Ohio. Tej attended two years of undergraduate school at Western College for Women, now part of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She lived among family in India for three years between 1966 and 1969, receiving her BA Degree from Panjab University in Chandigarh, where she also worked for a local newspaper. Subsequently, she returned to the US and completed graduate studies at Boston University, earning a Master’s Degree in Journalism. 

Tej was strikingly pretty and petite, always immaculately turned out, with a smile that lit up a room. She was also highly articulate and a gifted writer. Her career included stints in freelance journalism as well as employment in the communications departments of major corporations, including John Hancock and New England Life. 

Tej married Edward “Eddie” Stead, an engineer and Navy veteran, in 1989. After eleven years in the Boston area, the couple retired to New Hampshire, eventually making Hooksett their home. They loved quiet surroundings, flowers and foliage, cats (having owned two for a period), international cuisine, old movies, theater, family and close friends. Tej was also an avid follower of political events, keeping abreast of happenings all over the world, and campaigning for democratic causes she believed in. She even managed to watch some of the 2024 Democratic National Convention on TV from her hospital bed. She rooted for Hillary in 2016, and she would have been rooting for Kamala in 2024. She liked strong women, and was one herself.

Above all, she was loyal, kind and compassionate. She never forgot a friend’s or relative’s birthday or anniversary, and was generous to a fault. Her cousins in India, and family and friends in the US, will miss her lengthy phone calls, in which she always expressed genuine concern for the complexities of their lives. 

She leaves behind her husband of 35 years, Eddie; her brother, Hartej Sandhu; her sister, K. Raina Stuart and her spouse; a nephew and his spouse; two nieces; three grand-nephews, and a grand-niece.

SERVICES: There are no calling hours or services at this time.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in her memory to the American Heart Association of NH; https://www.heart.org/en/affiliates/new-hampshire or to Hilltop Humane Society of South Weymouth, MA; https://hilltophumane.org/

Phaneuf Funeral Homes and Crematorium assisted the family with arrangements. To view an online memorial, leave a message of condolence, or for more information please go to https://phaneuf.net/