Phyllis Marie Hirst

Phyllis Marie Rickert was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 16, 1939 and lived in the same home for twenty-two years. She attended Olney High School, where she enjoyed playing field hockey and her studies. She met her husband in their senior year two months before graduating in 1957. After four years of a long-distance courtship while Bill was in college in Illinois and Phyllis was a RN student at Jefferson Nursing School in Philadelphia, they were married on December 27, 1961. Phyllis then moved to Glen Ellyn, Illinois where Bill was teaching. She continued her profession as a nurse at the West Suburban Hospital in Chicago until they moved back to Pennsylvania in 1963.

In 1963, Bill and Phyllis moved to Pennsylvania when Bill started graduate school at Penn State University at State College. Phyllis was a nurse at Bellefonte Hospital until they moved to Phoenixville, PA working there as an OR nurse while Bill began teaching in King of Prussia.

Bill and Phyllis built a home in Pottstown, PA and on April 11, 1969, their son Jon David was born. Six years later, they adopted Annmarie, a wonderful gift from the Lord, when she was five days old.

In October of 1976, the family moved to Springfield, Virginia where they entered into the church life in Washington D.C. and Bill began teaching middle school in Fairfax County. Phyllis served faithfully shepherding the children in the church’s children’s meetings for twenty years and working for an OBGYN practice as a nurse until 2002.

In 2005, Phyllis was diagnosed with Cerebral Vascular disease resulting in worsening memory loss over the years that followed. She was put on hospice in September of 2016 because of the Alzheimer disease symptoms. In January 2017, Phyllis was bedridden in a hospital bed in their home until she went to be with the Lord on February 13, 2019.

Phyllis was a faithful and loving wife for 58 years, a cherishing nurse and a loving mother of her children and grandchildren. Throughout the last 14 years of suffering, Phyllis has maintained a peace because of the sweet contentment she had with her precious Lord in her spirit.

She is survived by her brother, John Rickert, her husband Bill Hirst, her son Jon David Hirst and his wife Karina with their three daughters, her daughter Annmarie Hirst Barone and her husband, Christian with their two sons as well as Phyllis’s niece and nephews.

She will be greatly missed by those who knew and loved her.

Bill, Jon David and Annmarie would like to thank all the wonderful friends, family, brothers and sisters in the Lord, neighbors, nurses and all loved ones who cared for Phyllis during her illness. Each one of you is deeply appreciated by us as a family and your care for her in so many ways astounds us. We were so fortunate to have had such a loving wife and mother and grandmother and for the time we had with her, we will treasure always. We also treasure the love and care expressed through all of you who loved Phyllis as well. Thank you so very much.

With deep appreciation,

Bill, Jon and Annmarie