Memorial grows for business for owner who died after battling COVID-19

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    MOBILE, Alabama (WALA ) — Just hours after her final conversations with friends, Heather Pfefferkorn died Saturday night after fighting COVID-19 for more than two weeks.

Across Mobile and beyond the well known event planner and owner of The Pillars in midtown was key to countless cherished life moments.

Those who knew her say she was a shining light, put out too soon.

“She loved everyone. Everyone loved her. If you met Heather you would never ever forget her,” said Mary Mancuso.

Pfefferkorn was a gem, a true friend, genuine and rare.

“She just made everyone she knew a better person, just made this world a better place to live in.”

The 50-year-old woman, so full of life, caught the virus on January 15th.

It was just two days after her husband, Dave, had tested positive while he was in the hospital with a blood infection.

She chronicled her battle with the virus on Facebook for concerned friends and family.

She wrote that she could not be admitted to the hospital, as she experienced fevers and had trouble breathing, because there were no beds left.

Her last post was on January 29th saying she’d spent 24 hours in the ER until a bed finally opened up.

Doctors told her her lungs were like cracked glass.

“Just a couple hours before she passed she even.. she said I know something’s wrong, I just can’t put my finger on it.”

Her husband, writing a heart shattering post Saturday night, saying he was shaking as he wrote that his wife was gone.

Her friend, Mary Mancuso, says Pfefferkorn had found out she’d had an embolism just hours before she died.

Mancuso’s wedding on December 27th was the last event Pfefferkorn hosted at The Pillars.

Hundreds of people expressing their deepest sympathies on Facebook, many showering the place she made dreams come true– her pride and joy– The Pillars, with beautiful flowers, paying tribute to the woman with a heart of gold, who loved life and loved people.

Heather Pfefferkorn was a true pillar in people’s lives, who will be greatly missed by so many.

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