Heidi

Yesterday, Saturday August 23, 2008, Heidi Bottomley Meyer was buried in Eureka Springs, AR next to her mom, Alice. And I was not there to say good-bye or to stand with my friends as they mourned.

Heidi and I attended the same high school. It was a small school. Everybody knew everybody else. But she was my little sister's very best friend. Heidi attended Hendrix College (where Tree and I went) for a time before transferring to the University of Arkansas to complete her teaching degree. Heidi taught in our hometown of Eureka Springs. She was beginning her eighth year teaching at Washington Junior High in Bentonville when she unexpectedly died. She had a passion for the written word and shared that passion with hundreds of kids each year. She was six weeks shy of her 37th birthday.

Heidi has two siblings, Bret and Brandon. Heidi married Donovan Meyer, her high school sweetheart and friend. Her daughter Avery is just about two years old.

It is tremendously sad when someone you know dies. But it becomes tragically incomprehensible when it is someone so good and so young.

For friends who knew Heidi and would like to help, Bret has created a website memorial for her. The family is asking that in lieu of flowers that monetary gifts be made to her memorial fund.