Friends, family remember ‘Wonderwoman’

By JOELLE BURNETTE
ROHNERT PARK CORRESPONDENT

Wonderwoman. That’s what Heidi Kreger called herself on her phone’s voicemail message, in her classroom, and in life. But this was no boastful bragging. Rather, it was a title this teacher earned and deserved.

At a home in a quiet Santa Rosa neighborhood, several family members gathered to talk about the woman they all knew as Heidi, tell stories and mourn her sudden loss at age 40.

She died last week from an infection while being treated for leukemia, only days after being diagnosed with a cancer that had a 95 percent cure rate, according to what doctors told the family.

“She said this was her test and she was going to get an A+,” said Heidi’s aunt, Gini Dunlap.

Heidi and her husband, Eddie Kreger, were already making plans for her return to their Glen Ellen home and back to her classroom at Evergreen Elementary School. It was only last summer when he and Heidi were married.

They had known each other for five years after having met on Craigslist, but their lives nearly crossed paths numerous times years prior. After meeting online, little by little they found out how much they had in common including having both attended Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa and Chico State University. Moreover, they had grown up in the same Santa Rosa neighborhood from the time Heidi was 5 years old and the family moved north from Santa Barbara where she was born.

“We were so close to each other and yet, so far,” Eddie said. “It took so long for us to find each other. I got gypped.”

The two shared a deep appreciation of nature, particularly Heidi, who was a natural on their Glen Ellen ranch where she loved her animals, especially the chickens, housed in what they called the “chicken palace.” And there was Rocky, an old Rat Terrier and her favorite of three dogs. She was worried about Rocky when she was in the hospital, said Eddie who had stayed every night in her room.

But at the top of her concerns were her students at Evergreen.

While in the hospital, her brother Chris Tatum told how she’d say, “who is going to help them with their Mother’s Day presents.”

Heidi was someone who was meant to be a teacher, and her background led her into the field. As a youngster, she enjoyed babysitting, and when she was in high school and college, her work always included children. She was a lifeguard in Santa Rosa, a YMCA camp counselor and even managed the children’s train at Howarth Park.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better daughter, for a better person,” said her father, Ken Tatum.

She was in her early 20s when she was a student-teacher at Gold Ridge Elementary School in Rohnert Park. She taught a combination fourth and fifth-grade class, one that her mother, Pat Dunlap, described as “magical.”

While Heidi was just entering her 40s, her mother described her as “an old soul, as far as her heart and her caring,” which made her a wonderful teacher. “She always found the positives in the kids,” her mother said, and even the children who came into her class not liking school left her class with a newfound love of learning.

That view was echoed by Stacey Ottolini, one of Kreger’s former fifth-grade students from the last class at Gold Ridge before it was closed by the district. “She was the best teacher ever,” Ottolini said.

Crowds filled the playground at Evergreen Elementary School Thursday for a candlelight vigil

Thursday night, past students flocked to Evergreen with their families to participate in a candlelight vigil. Kreger was honored with loving words, poems, hugs, tears and one of her favorite school songs, the upbeat, “I’m in the mood for singing,” led by Debbie Ziese, a teacher and her friend.

Ziese fought back tears as she played her guitar with gusto and led the crowd in song as they held their flickering candles.

Another friend and teacher, Nancy Aiona, said, “She was one of the most giving people I’ve ever met. She loved us all.” Aiona spoke about remembering Kreger’s warm smile and led the children in a “hip, hip, hooray.”

“She made everybody smile,” said 7-year-old Taylor Broughton who was in Kreger’s class this year.

Last Tuesday, Principal Gaylene Rosaschi had the difficult task of calling all the families in Kreger’s class to relay the news of her death.

“The community has really come together to support the students and staff,” Rosaschi said.

“They acted in the same way Heidi would have acted if she was here,” said Susan Adams, whose son was in Kreger’s class this year.

Children’s drawings and messages were posted on an impromptu memorial wall facing Kreger’s classroom and were displayed on the small tree near her door.

Outside classroom D-2, parents, teachers and children filled the courtyard, looked in her room that was decorated for open house with her students’ projects. They cried, stood quiet and told stories about Kreger. Many stayed late until the day’s light began to fade, leaving the flickering candles as a bright focus while they talked on.

“She was a beautiful person,” said Donna Ridley whose son, Austin, had her for fifth grade at Gold Ridge. “She just loved children.”

“Heidi was the most loving teacher in the world,” said Julan Pekkain, the founding principal at Gold Ridge who left the year Kregar started at the school.

By 9 p.m. on campus, one of the last to leave was Josh Cutler, another teacher and friend from Gold Ridge.

“She took me under her wing,” said Cutler about the year he began teaching. He and two other teachers started the same year and he said, “We were her little ducklings. She was my guiding light.”

His eyes bloodshot from tears, Cutler told about the last text message he received from Kreger the day before she died — a day when she had been up walking and joking with the nurses. “Josh, I’m on level 10 of Angry Birds,” she wrote about a game on her iPhone.

In her last days in the hospital, Kreger wrote on her blog about how she suddenly appreciated the small pleasures in life such as a shower and the sudden desire to floss her teeth.

And on Monday, she wrote, “I am grateful for all the messages that make me laugh and smile. Your love keeps me up. They said there will be up and down days and I have felt pretty fortunate to be doing as well as I have.”

Kreger’s family is asking her friends and students to create 12-by-12-inch pages with thoughts, photos, DVD discs with videos, cards, etc. to go into a memory book for her husband. They ask friends to bring the pages to a community memorial service. The date and location will be announced soon.