The obituary notice of Heather Grace PHILLIPS

Eve Berkeley-Hill
Heather was one of my Sunday school teachers at St Peters during the late 1940s Recently we got in touch and I had several happy visits to her in the nursing home. I loved talking to her. She was so interested in others and such a good listener. I will really miss her company.

Heather befriended me soon after I had joined St Peters congregation in 1998 and she lived near us and we would often meet as she made her way up to church on a Sunday initially on foot and then on her mobility scooter. She took a keen interest in our family and watching my children Amy and Tom as they grew up often giving me books and magazines she felt that they would be interested in seeing about nature and birds in particular. She became a firm friend and was always willing to listen if I had a problem that I need to share and I valued her wisdom and keen insight into what makes people tick. She had had such an interesting life and I always enjoyed hearing about her career as a teacher and her many travels abroad. I still have some of the pictures she painted and poems she wrote which I treasure. I enjoyed visiting her enormously when she moved to Westbury Gardens where she treasured maintaining a degree of independence. She accepted the need to move into the nursing home with grace but was determined not to be a burden to anyone. She was an amazing mentor and I very much missed being able to visit her or speak to her in the last 9 months but I have very happy memories of a lovely kind and wise friend. May she rest in peace.

I always appreciated how very welcoming Heather was when Siva joined the Gale family and she enjoyed hearing his tales of growing up in Malaysia. Always keen for a chat on the phone and to know what we were all doing - and she had the enviable ability to remember the full details from one conversation to the next! I think of Heather often when I'm cooking as we keep our wooden spoons in a big red pot that she gave us. I also bake the Christmas cake in one of the cake tins she passed on to us!

I was fortunate to know Heather for over 40 years through our mutual love of local history about Henleaze. She researched the history of the shops in the area and her fascinatings findings were published in the first local history book of the area. We kept in touch in writing and by telephone over the years. She was an extremely kind and caring person. I will really miss her. Rest in peace Heather.

Heather lived quite close to me but I knew her mainly because I played piano at St Peter's Church and was involved in the Christingle services organised by Heather for many years. She was a dear, sweet lady who always took interest in me and my family. I visited her many times at Westbury Gardens and then Westbury Nursing Home. These last months must have been very difficult for her not being able to have visitors. She was loved by so many people.

Enid Massingham

Auntie Heather was a wonderful godmother to me. She had a fabulous sense of humour and was always interested and supportive in everything that I did. We shared teaching careers and also both had a great love of music in general and singing in particular and she was always keen to follow concerts.
Our mutual deafness made telephone conversations difficult but we did manage to communicate up until very recently. I will miss her greatly.