Heather Dianne Burke

As the sun broke through the mid-morning gloom on Thursday, 28Dec2023, Heather Burke, 79, of Eagle Head Wharf Rd, Queens Co., shuffled out of her pain-ridden mortal coil and flew at lightspeed to the glorious brilliance of Heaven’s endless day and into the waiting arms of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Heather Dianne Seaboyer entered this world on the 25th of November, 1944, middle child of 7 born to Robie and Margaret Seaboyer of Lockeport, Shelburne Co. Blessed to be raised in a Christian family, Heather’s early life revolved around church events and her relationship with Christ. Active in youth groups, her wonderfully rich contralto singing voice was soon being appreciated by more than just her siblings as she sang harmony with her sisters and others in chorales and various groups. If you heard the Lennon Sisters, then you know what it is to hear Heather sing — the rich quality of her harmony was like listening to the angels sing.
From childhood, Heather was a gifted communicator and deceptively intuitive and, to her mother’s relief, was always the sensible one in any group of her peers. Not that she didn’t love fun and adventure, but she always showed an uncanny sense the importance of any shift in trends — Heather always kept a keen eye on the ‘higher prize’. 
Her ability to explain and gift for easily-comprehended communication led her to a career in education and, after graduating from the Nova Scotia Teachers College in 1965, Heather accepted an opportunity to teach young minds in Yarmouth Elementary. It was in Yarmouth that she met and married Wallace Robicheau in 1966. Oldest child, Heather Gail, was born in 1967 and, then, son Kenneth Robert in 1972. Tragedy struck the little family as Wallace died of brain disease in 1981.
Recognizing the importance of carefully navigating life’s valleys with great assurance and single-minded purpose, Heather and Raymond Burke married in 1982, moving with her children to his home and life in Winnipeg. At Ray’s retirement in 1987, the family fulfilled a long-held dream of returning to Nova Scotia. They purchased and renovated a century home on Eagle Head Wharf Rd — a locale that is every bit as rugged and beautiful as the name implies. Now, having been gifted the time and means to indulge in long-denied pursuits, Heather returned to her innate creativity and turned her efforts to producing scenes painted on a variety of media — rocks, shingles, buoys, and the like. Just about anything that sat idle for more than 10 minutes in Heather’s barn-studio at the end of the driveway might end up a beautifully handcrafted watercolour.
Seasons of life are reflected in the ceaseless ebbing and surging of the tide on Eagle Head beach. These tides, which found Heather mourning Ray’s passing in 2018, are the same ebbs and flows which have brought many young minds into the warmth of Heather’s home and the sphere of her influence as a natural educator. Waves of grandbabies and, eventually, great-grandbabies have provided Heather with wide fields of fertile minds into which she could cultivate her love, her compassion and her understanding of things. Seldom, if ever, lacking a young bundle of energetic life following close behind, Heather found her joy and purpose in the simple joy of family. The combination of a great cook with a generous heart will see to it that meal time will always be boisterous and hearty, full of the noisy joys of family harmony.
The return to Nova Scotia and living in Eagle Head also provided Heather with an opportunity to return to a welcoming community of faith and a refocusing of her faith in Christ as she joined the sturdy little congregation at Highway Pentecostal Assembly in Liverpool. Active in her participation and willing in her generosity, Heather and Ray knew what it was to help others in their times of struggle and also knew, as every family does or will, what it means to receive of the LORD’s goodness through familiar hands in their own times of need. Heather’s family expresses special thanks to caring Pastors Fred and Barb, great Eagle Head neighbours, Brian and Cathy, her quilting friends and all her church friends, especially her choir mates. Heather’s church family has been as close as her birth family and have proven a constant source of unfailing strength and comfort in Heather’s recent years.
While we mourn her passing and will miss her smile, we are grateful for her life, for the decades of knowing and being known by our Heddy, the grandbaby’s “Runny”. While we are bracing for the impact of her absence, we would never deny her the joy of her starting her eternal life in the presence of the One to Whom she has committed her trust and for Whom her love will know no ending.
Left to remember and mourn: daughter: Gail; son: Kenneth [Daviena]; grandchildren: Ashley Mullen [Blake], Caitlynn Simpson [Steve]; Cailey-Jade, Jacob, and Tristan; greatgrandchildren: Austin, Brookland, Freya, Gauge, Emily, Chloe and Caleb; sister: Margaret Rose Williams; brothers: Harold and David Seaboyer. Predeceased by parents: Robie and Margaret; husbands: Wallace Robicheau and Raymond Burke; brothers: Robert and Lynn; and sister: Coralee Speerstra.
Heather’s mortal remains have been entrusted to Chandler’s Funeral Services, Liverpool. A celebration of Heather’s life will be held at 230pm on Sunday, 31st of December, 2023 at Highway Pentecostal Church, Liverpool. No flowers, please, by family request. Heather’s love of pets made her appreciative of all animal shelters – if you choose to make a donation in her memory, your local shelter would be a fine choice.
A private service at a later date will commit her ashes to the earth where they will remain until her resurrection at the final trumpet.

“… For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise…“ 1Thess 4:16