Heidi Nicole Peterson

Heidi Nicole Peterson was born on July 2, 1979, and died on April 10, 2014. She over came great adversity and was a kind soul to everyone she met. Heidi found happiness, found love, and enjoyed life surrounded by friends and family who loved and supported her. Heidi was an imaginative and creative soul. She loved to play games. She drew pictures of silly creatures and sketched doodles of animals. She read horror, fantasy, and fiction with equal veracity. She longed for adventures and to share them with her family and love. Heidi took photographs to remember the moments and was called upon by friends to document the important times in their lives. She looked for the little things to enhance the moments and made everyone's experience richer for it. She was equally content to spend the day curled on the couch, reading a book or watching a movie, her dog at her feet, her cat on her lap, and her love tending to their home. She enjoyed the quiet solitude of an afternoon in a hammock; in a home she was proud to be apart of. She was an advocate for animals, children, and people with mental illness. She championed their rights, supported their endeavors, and educated everyone on their plight so as to make this world a better place for everyone who lived in it. She had many hobbies and many interests that brought her in contact with people from across the country and around the world. Heidi took pleasure in quietly helping people and giving credit to others, allowing them to shine in the light of her accomplishment. When others needed help, she was the first to volunteer and the last to leave. Heidi lives on by the people in her life living to her example. Take an interest in the world and the people in it, help those who need help the most, and love the ones closest to you. She is survived by her mother Hannelore and father Jerome Peterson, her brother Brian Peterson and sister-in-law Diane Ayers, her soul-mate Mark Switzer, and his two children Nicholas and Matthew, her dog Ajax and her cat Apollo.