Damn! Heidi Wilke Taylor passed away May 23, 2024 at age 49.

Radiant with kindness and embracing of the eccentric, Heidi-Ho’s passionate drive to care for others spoke to her sincere selfless nature in all aspects of her life. That drive was so motivating that she changed careers and enrolled in nursing school in 2018 … just in time for COVID. She became an operating room nurse with an elite team here in Charlotte, NC.

Heidi was known as “Slippy” to her namesake trivia team of 15 years, as well as to countless pool players. Her eponymous line of billiards products were emblazoned with her goofiest face, an accidental candid shot so terribly unflattering that there was only one thing to do: share it with the world!

A testament to Heidi’s love of helping others, she was an organ donor. However, like so many plans she had for the future, that was suddenly derailed as a result of cancer. (Fuck cancer!) Struck down in her prime, Heidi’s diagnosis in September of 2022 of stage IV intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma came a day after running 18 miles, as she was training for her next marathon. However, she was able to posthumously “enroll” at the Congdon School of Health Sciences at High Point University, where she’ll help teach a new crop of healthcare workers. Her family encourages those who knew Heidi to become organ- or whole-body donors in her memory.

It should be noted that the family has had another, and more recent, loss. Heidi’s mother, Betty Lutz Wilke, died peacefully May 27, 2024.

There are so many people, hundreds in fact, to thank for all the care, love, support, generosity, kindness, and help we’ve received since September of 2022. There’s no way to list them all here (you’ll get to meet a bunch of ‘em at HeidiFest!). Still, we must thank all of Heidi’s friends with “Run For Your Life” who absolutely knocked it out of the park early on with their amazing kindness and generosity, setting the tone for everything that came afterwards. Heidi’s coworkers at Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute immeasurably showed their love and support for one of their newest teammates. Heidi’s former officemates at Sterling have kept the wheels on the wagon, allowing her spouse unlimited ability to spend time with her. Thank you, Heidi’s teachers at CPCC, for facing the instructional challenges during COVID, allowing Heidi to pursue her discovered-late-in-life dream of becoming a nurse. Frankly not very many family, friends, and neighbors knew of Heidi’s condition; she did not want to burden anyone with the knowledge unnecessarily. If you are just now learning, you now also know why, and thank you. All of the healthcare workers involved in Heidi’s care (lab techs, phlebotomists, sonographers, radiographers, and so on) deserve recognition and have our appreciation.

Thank you, Heidi’s doctors, for dedicating your lives, with great sacrifice, for the benefit of all your patients. Those letters before and after your name were earned, as was the right to be listed here by name. At both Atrium Health and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Heidi had direct care from Drs. Corso, Crane, Fountzilas, Hagen, Haggstrom, Iannitti, Kennard, Krishnamurthy, Nannapaneni, Puzanov, Rodman, Simpson, Tango, and Wynne, plus countless others behind the scenes.

Truly deserving of special recognition, of course, are the nurses and supporters who provided healthcare to Heidi. The known names of “Heidi’s Heroes” are Allison, Bethany, Caitlyn, Carleen, Carolyn, Faith, Genna, Jessica, Kathy, Kayla, Kenya, Kristen, La, La’Terra, Lisa, Marioly, Marissa, Michelle, Rachel, Sarah, Sophie, Vicky, and Wendy.

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