Argentan

Sint-Niklaas

Schongau

Lucca

Colmar

 Heather Pennington

It was with huge sadness we heard of the death of Heather Pennington on Sunday 29 March 2009. Heather had not been well for a while and had spent some time in the Churchill Hospital, but she had been home for a few weeks and we all hoped she was recovering. We were sure that it would only be a matter of time before she was back with us, working hard for the Twinning Society.

When I rang Michael Matthews to find out the roles that Heather had held in the Society I was really surprised to hear that in fact she did not become a member until after she met Stan Ponting in 1999. In 2001 Stan persuaded Heather to joint the Society and it was not long before she joined the committee. Almost immediately she became one of our most hard working members.

Of course Heather loved travelling, and particularly loved people and so enjoyed visiting our Twin Towns, making friends wherever she went. Her last visit with the Twinning Society was to Abingdon, Virginia, last September. She and Stan stayed with a family there, making new friends.

Because Heather worked so hard for the Society it would be easy to think that it was all she did. She moved to Abingdon from Halewood, Liverpool, 24 years ago and worked for a secretarial agency. She joined Trinity Church and then the Thursday Club. Heather then joined the Bowls Club, Whist Club and was a member of the RSPB.

Together with Stan, Heather travelled a lot. In 2008 she toured New Zealand, walked in the French Alps, went bird watching in the north of England and visited Virginia and Washington DC. She was a wonderful travelling companion, always interested, always laid back and easy going. We got lost once, a group of us, trying to find a hotel on the outskirts of St Petersburg. We were due to arrive at about 6.30pm. When we finally found the hotel at 1.30 am after driving, it seemed, halfway to Siberia, Heather was still smiling and supportive. "Don’t worry, we’ll find it eventually, we are all together and we are all OK". Gosh, we will miss her.

Heather leaves a son, Paul, daughter-in-law Rachel and a granddaughter Rebecca who is 4, as well as her partner for ten years, Stan. 

Stella Carter