Heidi Rechtsteiner of Gettysburg, Pa., died unexpectedly on April 25. She was 46.

She was born on Martha’s Vineyard to Virginia (Ginny) C. Dill Gregory of Lititz, Pa., and Charles Bruce Rechtsteiner of Indiana.

Heidi graduated from the Tisbury School, attended her freshman year at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and graduated in 1990 from Lancaster Mennonite High School.

She was married on the Vineyard at Ernie Boch’s estate in the fall of 1996, gave birth to her first son at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and then moved to New Jersey. In 2003, after the birth of her daughter, she graduated from Monmouth County Vocational School as a licensed practical nurse.

She worked in New Jersey for a few years before moving to Pennsylvania in 2011 and continuing as an LPN, most recently in Gettsyburg, where she finished her career earlier this year. She enjoyed engaging with her patients and was a compassionate advocate for them.

Heidi loved life. One of her trademarks was to make those around her laugh and see the humor in life.

She was a part of the Christmas chorus singing in the bitter cold on Memorial Wharf in Edgartown in one of the Jaws movies, after which she came home late at night, freezing but with a smile on her face.

Heidi is survived by her three children, Theolonious Robert Stoner and Sienna Arline Stoner, both of Georgia, and Tristan Joaquin Kaplan of New Jersey; a brother Charles Bruce Rechtsteiner Jr. of New Hampshire; a sister Heather Dawn Groff of Lancaster, Pa.; stepbrothers Douglas Gregory and Robert Gregory of Falmouth and Donald W. Gregory Jr. of Oak Bluffs, and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her stepfather, Donald W. Gregory.