Terri Suzanne Heller

February 11, 1972  –  April 26, 2022

Terri Heller

In the 11 o’clock hour on 4/26/22, a colorful, protective, supportive and loving star joined the night sky. We were blessed to have known Terri Suzanne Heller (née Todd) (born in Oneida, NY on February 11, 1972) for 50 years. Terri didn’t deserve all the pain that was thrown her way. Even with the pain, it was hard to let her physical body go. She clung tightly to this world and her loved ones. She was too gentle a soul to be in this mortal world. Terri believed in God, 100%, and therefore, she wasn’t afraid of the afterlife. As her big sister, I wanted to be there in her time of dying, to see her off to the “good place” where she would be among her own kind…but with grace, she exited this world when her best friend and myself left the room for a few minutes to get some water while hospice nurses were doing the every-4-hour repositioning. I believe Terri couldn’t let go with us there in the room because she wanted to spare us pain. When we came back minutes later and looked at her sweet face and there was just quiet, we knew… She looked so beautiful, so peaceful and free, I couldn’t blame her for what she had to do. We love her dearly and she will travel in a sense, with myself and with our family, everywhere we go from this day forward. We will never be complacent again about our lives. Life is a gift. Terri was a gift.

Thank you and bless you, Terri. You deserved better but never held a grudge. You were happy with the little things in life. You were a diamond among common rocks and we love you always and will never let go of you. Terri is survived by her son, Jacob “Jake” Allen Heller, her Mother, Kathleen Peterson, her Father James Barry Todd, her older brother, James N. Todd, her sister (myself) Stacy A. Todd, her Step Father, Curtis Peterson, two maternal aunts (Eileen & Michelle), one paternal aunt (Linda), her nephew, Gavin Craig, a handful of cousins, and one maternal grandmother (Martha). Terri loved her son Jake, and her family (including extended family like my late step mother, Jeanie, and step siblings, Mark and Raena), her true friends, the elderly, homeless people and the “underdogs” in general, reggae, folk and 80’s music, thrift shopping, fashion, cinema, casinos, collecting sentimental things that reminded her of her childhood, turtles, Mexican cuisine, dancing, unbridled romance and passionate feelings, sentiment, laughter and silliness, and life in general. Even after all the hardship she went through with getting brain cancer in her young-mid 20’s, and eventually losing a lot of her ability to communicate effectively enough with language to maintain her past friendships, not getting enough time with her son throughout her often lonely life, and a myriad of disappointments- still, when her best friend asked her, towards the end, if there was anything she regretted or if she had any goals that she wish she’d achieved, her response was; “nah, I’m good”. I laughed with joy upon hearing this because…If that isn’t someone who appreciated just being alive, I don’t know what is!

Thank you, dear Terri, for all you were and all you continue to be in our eyes and in our hearts. Forever. #loveliketerriwould