‘Happy Heidi’, as she was known by many, was a plant-loving, passionate music fan, who ran a hairdressing salon where she considered her clients her family.
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Born at Goulburn Valley Base Hospital on December 7, 1967, Heidi Moylan, née Schramml, was the eldest of three children born to parents Susanne ‘Suzie’ and Heinrich ‘Heinz’ Schramml (both deceased).
She attended Shepparton East Primary School before starting her secondary education at Shepparton High School, where she enjoyed school camps to central Australia and Tasmania.
A young Heidi would ride her bike to school each day, returning to the family’s pig farm to enjoy some of her mum’s freshly cooked pancakes afterwards, before heading out to work in the piggery.
She had a love of playing tennis for her Shepparton East club at Central Ave, and would diligently ride her bike to training and weekend games.
Heidi knew she wanted to be a hairdresser, so while she was at school, she volunteered her time at local salons on weekends, sweeping, mopping and showing an interest in learning about hair, which helped her secure an apprenticeship when she was 16.
She left school in Year 10 to begin her trade.
It was a trade she would enjoy for the rest of her life.
She spent 20 years as an employee at a couple of Shepparton salons and renting a chair at Vishair before purchasing the business and operating it for a further 20 years, celebrating a milestone 40 years of hairdressing earlier this year.
On August 1, 1991, Heidi married Bernie Moylan at the Shepparton Courthouse, becoming a mum to her stepsons Nathan and Clinton, who were then aged 4 and 2 (now both dec).
Five years later, in 1996, Heidi and Bernie welcomed a child named Kimberley together.
Kimberley remembers her mother as always being happy, enthusiastic and selfless.
“She was always someone you could just go to and talk to,” Kimberley said.
“She would always put herself last. She truly had a heart of gold; she was the most generous person, the most giving person, very empathetic.
“And fun; just so much fun. She was just not a boring mum, she was just so fun.”
Because she was a salon owner and operator, a dedicated Heidi didn’t take long periods away from work.
She did get to enjoy holidays to Cairns, the Gold Coast, Merimbula, the Great Ocean Road and the Blue Mountains, as well as a bunch of camping trips in the great outdoors when the boys were little, but it was somewhere a little closer to home she was most fond of in recent years.
Heidi, Bernie, Kimberley and Kimberley’s husband, Ricky, would stay a few nights down in Melbourne every couple of months to get some leisure time.
“She loved letting her hair down at Crown Casino; that was our family time, it was really nice,” Kimberley said.
“Gosh, we’d have a great time. You wouldn’t think hanging out with your parents would be so fun, but it was.
“They’re not just my parents, they’re our best friends.”
Live music also provided Heidi with many an outlet for leisure through her 57 years.
“She was a music fiend, she loved going to concerts,” Kimberley said.
“Her first concert was Queen when she was 16; I don’t know how you could ever top that.”
Kimberley said her mum had seen “all the greats”, including Cher, AC/DC, Madonna, Savage Garden and Bryan Adams.
“There’s too many to name,” she said.
“She took me to AC/DC, that was my first concert.”
Aside from the bright lights of the city and the reverberating beats of headlining showstoppers, Heidi indulged in plenty of quiet time surrounded by her plants in her fernery, where she would sit of an evening to wind down after a day on her feet in the salon.
She was also partial to indulging in a soap opera or two, with The Bold and The Beautiful, Days of Our Lives and The Young and The Restless regularly on her radar.
Sadly, Heidi was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in November 2024.
Originally, she refused treatment, being that the diagnosis was terminal and the cancer had spread from her lungs to her bones, liver and thyroid.
But after learning Kimberley was pregnant with her second child, a younger sibling for Heidi’s first grandchild, Hunter, 3, her oncologist convinced her to so that she may buy some time.
She started treatment a week later and, besides fatigue, her side effects were minimal until the few weeks before she passed, when she started to lose her hair.
Kimberley took her mum to a wig clinic for people with cancer at St John of God Hospital in Bendigo, where Heidi chose herself a wig she was able to cut, style and colour.
“I remember that being the last ‘good day’ I spent with Mum,” Kimberley said.
“We went for lunch ... we found the perfect wig, and Mum felt beautiful again.”
Kimberley said Heidi told her clients she’d had her hair done in the city.
“To Mum, her hair was everything, and it destroyed her when she lost it.”
Kimberley met Heidi at the salon every morning before her first client arrived to put on her wig and get her set up for the day.
From the moment she’d been diagnosed, her wish was that no-one found out she was sick besides Bernie, Kimberley and Ricky.
“She just wanted to keep as much normality as possible,” Kimberley said.
“She thought that if people found out, people would be very sympathetic towards her, treat her differently.
“She just wanted to keep working and keep staying positive and keep being as normal as possible for as long as she could, and that’s exactly what she did.”
The treatment sustained the proud and loving grandmother, aka ‘Omie’, long enough to see her second grandchild, Ellie Heidi, born 10 days before she passed.
She also worked up until four days before she died, surrounded by Bernie, Kimberley and Ricky “comfortable, pain-free and absolutely beautiful” on August 10, though her clients might never have suspected she had been unwell all year.
Kimberley recalled how her mum could walk during the day, topping up with oxygen in the back room of the salon between clients to get through, but was confined to a wheelchair at night, reserving all her energy to “make her clients beautiful” each day.
She said the family had encouraged her to close the shop as her condition deteriorated, but she insisted her work and her clients were extending her life.
“It gave her something to live for. She was happy and distracted,” Kimberley said.
“She was a very proud business owner and operator.
“Mum’s wish was to work right up until the very end and she absolutely did.
“We’re very proud of her.”
Heidi was buried privately, as per her wishes, on August 22 with a “handful” of family members and a couple of clients who’d become her best friends.
“Her clients were her world; they were her family,” Kimberley said.
The funeral procession travelled past her salon and her home before she was laid to rest at Pine Lodge Cemetery.
“It was the most beautiful thing we’ve ever done for someone. It was just so lovely, and Mum would have been very proud,” Kimberley said.
On Sunday, September 14, the family opened Heidi’s salon one last time for mourners to pay tribute to her, with some of her clients having been regulars for more than 20 years.
Kimberley said the memorial to her mum was heartwarming.
“I was overwhelmed with the support of Mum’s treasured clients, all of whom are heartbroken,” Kimberley said.
“My mum was the most selfless, hardworking and beautiful person inside and out.”