Heather Kathleen Ferrigan

19, 2022, following a brain aneurysm. She was 57.

Heather was born on June 21, 1965, in Gladstone, Oregon to parents Sherrill Gigliotti and Danny

Hill. She was empathetic and creative from an early age, attending to a menagerie of pets

including Sugar Booger the squirrel monkey, Daffy the duck, Molly the Cat, and a turtle who

once sent Heather to the hospital after it clamped down on her lips during a customary goodnight

kiss.

After graduating from Gladstone High School in 1983, Heather went on to study liberal arts and

elementary education at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. Following her graduation from

Lewis and Clark, Heather began work as a first grade instructor at Southwest Portland’s

Duniway Elementary School. A year later, she married Terence Withers, whom she met as a high

school junior after Terence spotted her at a KFC off of Portland’s 82nd Avenue.

Heather’s life had many loves, and teaching was one of the greatest. After leaving her position at

Duniway, she opened a preschool in her Wilsonville home, and went on to forge bonds with

students in the West Linn-Wilsonville and Banks school districts over nearly two decades. She

strove to build playful, safe classroom environments for all of her students, and took a particular

shine to pupils she sensed might be struggling at home. That caretaking instinct permeated

everything she touched.

Another great love was, of course, her family. On June 4, 1991, Heather and Terence welcomed

Annalee “Anna” Withers into the world. Three years later, on November 7, 1994, their second

daughter Elizabeth (known to most as “Libby”) was born. On New Year’s Day 1998, Heather

and Terence had their third and final child: Joseph “Joe” Withers. To her children (and eventual

grandchildren), Heather would come to be known not as “mom” or “grandma,” but as Bubbie.

Heather met her second husband, Tim Ferrigan, online. On their first date, the two walked

through Portland’s Japanese Garden, speaking for hours about their respective families: both

were divorced, both had kids of similar ages. When she left that date, Heather knew that she

wanted to marry Tim. Six months later, he proposed using a wooden box stuffed with photos of

their families and 100 paper hearts strung together, each detailing a reason he loved her. On the

final heart, he attached an engagement ring. Heather and Tim were married on July 30, 2005, at

Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, before “Brady Bunching” their families together at their

home in Banks.

For Heather, teaching (which she formally left in 2012), caretaking (which she’s pursued in

various professional capacities since 1991), and parenting (which she engaged in until her death)

were one impulse. Her sense of play spilled out of the home, where no holiday went

under-celebrated and no birthday void of an elaborate balloon display, and into the classroom.

She was the first-ever instructor for her granddaughters Olivia (who quickly became known as

“Baby Bubbie”) and Delaney, teaching them to bake cookies and letting them design their own

early curriculums, which resulted in units on subjects spanning Coyotes & Couscous to Poodles

& Frosting.

As a caretaker, Heather loved organizing spaces, removing clutter to make room for joy. After

she left teaching, she took jobs at Oregon City’s McLoughlin Place Senior Living and Lake

Oswego’s The Springs, tidying space and providing person-to-person companionship to residents

with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Anyone under her care, no matter their age, grew to become part

of her enormous extended family.

After their kids grew into adults, Heather and Tim spent more and more time together—they

loved to track down bars where both could play darts and she could sing karaoke. (The B-52’s’

“Love Shack” was a particular favorite.) According to friends and family, her final months were

extraordinarily happy. She spent time with her grandchildren, converted a home in Multnomah

Village into a makeshift art studio, and felt her marriage with Tim grow as strong as it had ever

been.

Heather is survived by her husband Timothy Ferrigan, daughters Elizabeth and Annalee Withers,

son Joseph Withers, brother David Hill, stepdaughters Heather Palinsky and Emily Montecalvo,

stepson Samuel Montecalvo, and grandchildren Olivia Van Loo, Delaney Loiler, Jameson

Palinsky, and Skylar Palinsky. She is preceded in death by her parents, Sherrill Gigliotti and

Danny Hill.

A memorial service for Heather will be held at Finley-Sunset Hills Mortuary in Portland on

Saturday, December 10, at 2 p.m. Anyone who would like to send flowers can do so through

Teleflora; anyone with fond memories or expressions of sympathy for the Ferrigan family can

share them at finleysunsethills.com.

In a folder set aside for her memorial, Heather earmarked Vicki Brown’s “Look for Me in

Rainbows.” Its first verse offers easy-to-follow instructions for all who knew and loved her:

Time for me to go now, I won’t say goodbye;

Look for me in rainbows, way up in the sky.

In the morning sunrise when all the world is new,

Just look for me and love me, as you know I loved you.