You could take the Heather out of Martinborough, but no-one could ever take the Martinborough out of Heather.
She loved Martinborough and made a point of keeping up with everything that was going on in the town and its people. She also knew much of the town’s history.
She was passionate about teaching, Martinborough School, and all its children.
Heather had an amazing memory. At any time, she could recall the names of past students, their achievements, and events in their lives. She was involved with the school choir and played an active part in all the school productions. At the end of each year, she would take particular effort to make sure every senior student who was leaving to go onto secondary school, would take with them very special memories of their time at Martinborough School. Heather also made a huge difference to the lives of many children through the Reading Recovery programme.
Heather loved music, singing, and dancing and was actively involved with MADCAPS for several years as were her daughters Jacqui and Suzie. She also loved gardening, painting and writing poetry. Her mind was constantly in overdrive, always dreaming of what she would do next.
In the last years she taught at Martinborough School, her husband Brian was also a teacher aide at the school.
In the early 1990’s Heather’s health deteriorated and the Martinborough Community and all the children at Martinborough School spent many hours and put huge efforts into fundraising for a liver transplant operation in Sydney , Australia, where she and Brian had lived for several months awaiting a suitable liver donor. On December 8th 1996 Heather received her transplant. Years later she felt blessed that she was able to meet her donor’s family and also other organ recipients of the same donor.
When she and Brian returned to NZ after her transplant surgery and were living in Masterton, she worked for Kip McGrath, continuing in her love of teaching. She later moved to Australia where she bought into the franchise and continued teaching over there.
Heather lived life to the full. When she left NZ all those years ago to undergo her lifesaving transplant operation, she was very ill. When she returned home, she found her wings and embraced life to the full. She was a fighter to the end and for the next 29 years, despite fighting cancer and numerous surgeries and procedures, she never gave up.
Such an amazing spirit and an inspiration to all who knew and loved her. Heather touched the lives of all around her and a gap has been created that will never be filled. She will be dearly missed.
A service for Heather will be held in Martinborough during March for all of her New Zealand friends and family.
