She has gone to Heaven! She had gone to a costume party for Halloween. And we never saw her again! God decided he wanted her in heaven! She wore the dress that I had bought her at a medieval faire near here. She looked so beautiful in that dress! She told me that she felt like a bride in it! We went to the faire this past summer, and had so much fun!!! We were all dressed in costume, and where ever Heidi was, people would just stare at her. She was so beautiful!

We were always a very close family, and did so much together!! It's so very hard! She was so beautiful--inside, as well as on the outside! And OH! How she loved to dance!!!  She liked Garth Brooks, and liked the song, "The Dance" a lot. She told us the story behind the song, and said Garth had a hard time singing it without crying. I liked the song too--we both like Garth Brooks. Well, we had "The Dance" played at her funeral. The song is just so fitting! I play it and just weep, and think of her.

The funeral home was packed with so many people---people who loved Heidi. She has had several trees planted in her memory. There are two special trees planted in our yard from friends, a Frazier fir, and a pin oak tree. The Longhorn restaurant where she worked (she was a cook, and loved it!), planted an unruly weeping willow tree--they call it the Heidi tree. They told us that when anyone is having a bad day, they go out and kiss the tree. Heidi always made everyone smile!

This is the pin oak tree planted in our back yard in Heidi's memory. It was given to us from Dan and Beth, Gloria and Barry. Barry is the minister who gave the service at Heidi's funeral.

This is the pine tree planted in our yard by our friends Don and Deb, and Dave and Barb. They made us promise to always decorate the tree for Heidi for Christmas. Last year we put one big star on the top of it...for Heidi.

Another friend, Steve had a star named for Heidi. The star is called Heidi Allyn Reed now. Until the end of time! It is registered in Switzerland and the U.S.

The grade school she attended bought a book in memory of Heidi, and put it in their school library. The name of the book is "Young Guinevere". Heidi loved people--young and old. An elderly lady (one of her friends' grandmother) came to the funeral home in tears, and told us that Heidi would go and visit her! She loved Heidi. We got a letter from a boy who told us that he had known Heidi since the fifth grade, and that Heidi was a friend to him when nobody else would be! That's the kind of person she was!
 She loved the outdoors---the beach, the woods. And she loved animals.

We have her two cats--Princess she has had for 13 or 14 years. Princess would not come out of   Heidi's room for about 4 or 5 months, I think she was waiting for Heidi to come home! Then there is Sadie, who is a little over a year old, and has Heidi's spunk and attitude. We love her to pieces! I am afraid we are really spoiling her! It wouldn't be too bad, but we had 3 cats of our own! (Now we have 5)! But we couldn't let a one of them go now!
Heidi once brought home a litter of black lab puppies--she hid them for awhile! Well, she couldn't hide them for long. I guess the owner was going to dispose of them, and Heidi just wouldn't hear of it. So, she brought them home. Well, we kept them until they were all adopted out to good homes provided by "Because You Care" (a great pets without homes program) in our area.

She loved sports and got a wonderful tribute from her soccer coach in high school. She was wonderful in track, and always beat all the boys in grade school! She was in the State finals quite a lot. She ran at the Penn State track a couple of times, and did real well! She was involved with the Hershey track and field days. She also played soccer at Family First sports park, she even worked there for awhile. Heidi worked hard, and she played hard.
She was always a spunky little girl! And she lived and loved life to its fullest! She adored her brother, Scott! She loved her family and friends with everything she had! I could write a book about Heidi. She was so special. She was very strong...,strong minded and strong willed, but had a very soft heart. I only pray that we will all be together again with her someday.

This is one of the trees that Paul and I planted in Heidi's memory. In the wind it's branches seem to dance...it reminded us of Heidi.

These are pictures of Scott and Heidi that hang in our family room. The shelf between them is a shelf that Heidi had made for me. Now it holds her candle and a beautiful angel given to us by Anna, her husband, and her parents in memory of Heidi. The shelf is a shelf that Heidi made for me and gave to me on Mother's Day one year. I will always treasure it.

This is a statue that Paul and I bought in memory of Heidi that will eventually go in her memory garden. It reminded us of Heidi so much...loving animals.

This is one of the stepping stones we bought for Heidi's memory garden. It reads:

If tears could build a stairway, And Memories a Lane, I'd walk right up to Heaven and bring you Home again.

How we wish we could do just that!