Mary Jean Heffer (28 Feb 1963 - 19 Nov 2025)

Mary Jean was the second daughter of Lil and Allan Tarver. Born on 28th February 1963 in Bishops Itchington, Warwickshire. With her older sister, Ann, she grew up in rural village in a loving family home where they were taught right from wrong and to respect nature and the people around them. Mary developed as a very thoughtful, caring, honest and open person and very loyal to her family and friends. As a child, Mary always enjoyed the family holidays to Margate, and this seeded her love of travel. Mary’s family were always close and they were devastated when Mary’s dad died in 1995 . Mary and Ann both devotedly cared for their mum who developed mental health issues in her last years. Mary always remembered her parents with love throughout her life. After secondary education at Southam High School, Mary went to the Mid Warwickshire College where she studied residential care. This led her to her first job as a house parent at Exhall Grange, a residential school for children with visual impairment.

In 1991 Mary started to work for Guide Dogs for the Blind where she trained as a rehabilitation worker for the visually impaired. The training was intense but was compensated by chilled evenings with an odd glass of wine and silliness to get them through.
On qualifying, Mary went to work in Lincolnshire and moved to live in Grantham, this was the start of the long career for Mary with Guide Dogs, completing 35 years service. Mary had a happy and very successful vocation, working as a Vision Rehabilitation Specialist with the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. She was very well respected by colleagues and clients; making friends with everyone she helped and worked with. In her later years she became a very successful mentor to new colleagues and passed on her expertise, professionalism and compassion.

Mary and Richard met in 1997. They had a shared interest in hill walking and foreign travel and they quickly became close and started to share exotic holidays together. Richard and Mary visited Borneo, Australia, the Galapagos Islands, Maldives and Jordan in their first three years together. Mary always loved visiting new places and experiencing new cultures.
Mary and Richard married in 2005 in St Lucia in a very warm ceremony. Their marriage was always happy; they did not have any children as they were content with loving each other.
Their exotic trips abroad, always a feature of Mary’s life, continued and Mary particularly enjoyed her 50th Birthday holiday to Peru in 2013 to visit Machu Pichu, a life-long wish.

In 2012 Mary and Richard moved to Kinoulton, with Mary being sad to leave her long time friends and neighbours in Grantham. Mary quickly settled into Kinoulton, Mary loved the village shows, meals at the Neville Arms, the church coffee mornings, the Christmas Eve Carols, walking along the canal and petting the donkeys at Vimy Ridge Farm.

A big passion throughout Mary’s life was Yoga and it fitted her calm, gentle personality. She practiced yoga throughout her adult life, always did Yoga sessions on her holidays and started weekly Yoga sessions almost as soon as she moved Kinoulton. When Mary was undertaking her chemotherapy in 2019 and 2020, Yoga was a godsend for her.

Mary first had breast cancer in 2011 which was dealt with surgery and radiotherapy. She again had to undergo a long period of surgery and chemotherapy when the cancer came back in 2018. This was further repeated in 2020, and Mary’s strength and determination in undertaking her treatment meant that she was cancer free for the next five years.

In mid-September 2025, Mary started to feel unwell and it was discovered that her cancer had returned. Very sadly, it had progressed too far for safe treatment. Mary accepted this terrible diagnosis with bravery and fortitude. Richard and Mary went on one final bittersweet holiday to Derbyshire for Mary to see the scenery and do some walking. This was particularly appropriate as their first dates had been walking days out to the Derbyshire dales when they first met. Over her final weeks, Mary grew steadily more tired and weak. But she was always upbeat and resilient and enjoyed being visited by friends and colleagues.

Mary passed away on 19 November 2025 at home with Richard by her side, she slipped away quietly in no pain.