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Natalie L. Heineman

Natalie Lillian Heineman, a 50-year Guilford resident and retired registered nurse, died in New Haven on Jan. 26.

Natalie was born in the Bronx Borough of New York City on April 30, 1933, the daughter of Mildred E. Sealey and Nathaniel R. Heineman. At five years of age, Natalie and her parents moved to a new home in Hamden, where her father was employed as District Manager of the Mack Truck Company.

Natalie’s childhood years were privileged ones, thanks to doting parents. She was active in the Girl Scout program (Troop 38), “flying up” from a Brownie, earning badges, becoming patrol leader, and participating in extracurricular activities such as piano lessons, fencing, ballroom dancing, and ballet. At the private Gateway School for Girls in New Haven, Natalie became news editor for the school newspaper. She and friends rode bicycles to Sleeping Giant State Park, hiked to the stone castle, and roller skated on Skiff Street. Three of her high school years were passed at Hamden Hall Country Day School.

The Heineman family relocated to Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, in 1950, where Natalie was enrolled in the Wellesley Public High School for her senior year, graduating in 1951. “Nat,” as she was called, was known as the girl with red curly hair who loved music and collecting records. At this time, she became active with the International Order of Rainbow for Girls, a youth service organization that teaches benevolence, the truths of the Holy Bible, leadership, and patriotism. Natalie continued her higher education at Endicott Junior College in another Greater Boston community, Beverly Massachusetts, where she earned an associate’s degree in science in 1953. The family moved back to the New Haven area (Orange), where Natalie worked as a medical secretary to earn money to further her education.

She enrolled in a three-year program in the School of Nursing at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, graduating in 1958. As a registered professional nurse living on the east side of Manhattan, Natalie’s early nursing career was passed working in emergency rooms of area hospitals. In the 1960s, she moved to Scarsdale, New York, and commuted by train to workplaces in the city. She shared a luxury apartment on Garth Street with her widowed mother: a large penthouse with elevators and a roof garden.

Summer vacation rentals in the Mulberry Point and Indian Cove sections of Guilford introduced the Heinemans to Guilford at an early date. Natalie became the consummate nature lover and yearned for a more rural lifestyle. In 1972, she purchased and expanded a summer cottage in one of Guilford’s lakefront neighborhoods. She commuted to her workplace at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, working in the plant’s hospital. Natalie and staff often received up to 200 patients daily, performing hearing tests, eye tests, physical exams, and responding to emergencies. Notifications on the emergency room’s “red phone” occasionally required rides on helicopters to scenes of emergencies, such as one incident involving a test pilot who went down in Naugatuck.

In Guilford retirement, Natalie passed a quiet and private life. She served on the Board of the Guilford Keeping Society, working closely with its Library Committee, as well as outreaches to a women’s group at Christ Episcopal Church and school alumni groups.

One year before her final illness, Natalie proudly reflected on her long career as “a good nurse.” She believed that her father’s sudden death when she was only 23 years of age and the lifelong disability of her only sibling, Robert, influenced her life’s path in nursing.

She loved her companion cat, Simba, stray cats in the neighborhood, and all animals. She reminisced about finding “peace and serenity” in the Guilford community. It is not surprising that her last will and testament directs substantial funding for “the direct care and comfort of the animals” in a local animal shelter.

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, Natalie, the Lord God made them all. May you find eternal peace and serenity.

Natalie leaves numerous out-of-state cousins and Guilford friends to mourn her loss. A brief graveside service is scheduled for Tuesday, May 30, at 11 a.m., at Orange Center Cemetery, Orange.