Hedi Grob

HALIFAX- Hedi G. Grob, 95, died peacefully in her home on March 20, notably the first day of spring. She will be laid to rest in the Halifax Center cemetery at a date to be announced.
Mrs. Grob was born Hedwig Vogel in Zürich, in 1924, and enjoyed a Swiss upbringing along the shores of a beautiful lake offering old-town city charms combined with distant views of the snowcapped Alps. Growing up, she was immersed in creativity. Her father Heinrich was a civil servant and, in his spare time, an inventor and accomplished painter; her grandfather Jacob was a pioneering early Alpine photographer; her grandmother Rosa was costumer to the Zürich Opera.
Mrs. Grob finished her schooling and took an apprenticeship in a pharmacy, and as a laboratorian at Hoffmann la Roche, the latter leading to a fortuitous meeting with Ernest, her destined-to-be husband. It was in 1949 that she bade her country farewell and joined Ernie in Summit, NJ. There began a long spell of raising children, music, welcoming Swiss visitors, and embracing the American way. She never returned to live in Switzerland, though she visited home often. She expressed her creativity as a piano teacher who prided herself in nurturing young talent … bringing music into her home and filling the air with sonatas of her beloved Mozart, Schubert, and Bach.
Introduced by friends from Colrain, MA,  to the rugged hills of southeastern Vermont, and the dirt roads and farms that reminded her and Ernie of her native Switzerland, she  and her family began to enjoy the peace and solitude of her eventual home—they called it the “Farm” —in Halifax, where she was surrounded by nature, and the quiet of a little-trafficked road and a nearby hilltop view towards Haystack and the Green Mountains.
Many a Swiss friend came to marvel at the fall colors, the “beaver pond,” and the red farmhouse in Halifax.
Mrs. Grob brought joy to all who knew her, with her ready smile, her ever upbeat attitude, and an energy that endeared her to family and friends. Who said you can’t carry firewood or climb steep stairs when you’re 95?! Still, though she was a quiet and reflective person, she was a voracious reader and a Sudoku whiz to the very end. Not a day passed that the bookmark didn’t move ahead a chunk.
Mrs. Grob was predeceased by her husband Ernie, and is survived by her son Larry and his wife Ellen, of Weston, MA, son Doug of Halifax;  five granddaughters, Susannah, Ashley, Carlie, Erika, and Anabel; four great-grandchildren, Aliyah, Isaiah, Juelz, and Christopher; and her sister Trudi Oesch and brother-in-law, Kurt, of Antrim, NH.
A small service and burial will take place when spring, and the virus, let it be so.
Please consider giving in Mrs. Grob’s memory to the Deerfield Valley Food Pantry in Wilmington, serving those in need in her beloved corner of Vermont. People may do so by calling (802) 464-0148 or by donating online at www.deerfieldvalleyfoodpantry.org.