‘She loved so hard.’ Family & friends remember horticulturalist killed in KY tornado

Tiffany Heim, 48, loved trees, nature, gardening, being in the outdoors and spending time with her family, especially the time she spent with her grandchild.

That description of her life and joy was shared Monday by Michael French, director of operations for Green Forests Work, a Lexington organization Heim worked with. Her life was cut short late Friday, when an EF-3 tornado blew through Laurel County leaving a path of devastation and at least 19 people dead.

Heim is among them, having died after a tree fell on her London home off Hart Church Road.

“She loved so hard. She did not deserve this,” Heim’s daughter, Claire Heim, said Monday as she was cleaning up her mother’s home.

Tiffany Heim had a great sense of humor, an infectious laugh and was a joy to be around, French said.

Heim began working with Green Forests Work as a volunteer and during her service in the VISTA program through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, where she helped to coordinate and prepare for volunteer tree planting events, including at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, French told the Herald-Leader.

She was always happy to educate volunteers about the importance of reforestation and how to properly plant seedlings. After her service in the VISTA program ended, she worked for Green Forests Work as an independent contractor and volunteer, continuing to restore healthy forests on former coal surface mines across eastern Kentucky.

Heim also worked on other ecological restoration projects, including in Daniel Boone National Forest, where the group has been working with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners to increase the population of an endangered orchid.

French recalls Heim was a hard-worker and always ready to lend a hand with field work or help volunteers. More recently, she worked in the nursery industry, supervising plant propagation and care.

“She was witty,” Claire Heim said of her mother, and “crafty” with amazing abilities.

“Such a fun personality. She loved music, to dance, to sing, she loved going to new places. She loved her granddaughter, Myla, spending time with her. She was an amazing florist who loved putting together flowers for people,” Claire Heim said.

Tiffany Heim was a horticulturist most recently working as a manager in a wholesale nursery in Jackson County, where she was adored by the owners and employees, her friend Shannon Herron Weaver said.

Weaver recalls Heim’s academic gifts and fun, accepting spirit.

“Tiffany was a great co-worker, managing the greenhouse at Halverson Family Farm (in Jackson County) for four years. She was always intentional about her work,” owner Mikkel Halverson said. “She was also a dear family friend, as well. She was like a second mother to my little girls.”

Weaver said they would talk for hours, sometimes about problems in their lives, but before they wrapped up a conversation, Heim would ask, “Where did we find joy today?”

“She always looked for a way to stay positive,” Weaver said.

Services will be at 11 am Friday in the Bowling Funeral Home with visitation at 9:30 am Friday until the service hour at Bowling Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, the family request memorial donations be made to the United Way of Laurel County with the memo line saying “Tornado Relief.” You can mail if to P.O. Box 5004, London, KY 40743. Donations may also be dropped off at any Community Trust Bank location.

This story was originally published May 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM.