Dr. Eva Adelheid Kristensen

Known as Heidi by family and friends, Dr. Eva Adelheid Kristensen (Kunau) passed away at her home in Belchertown, MA, on Thursday, June 5, 2025, after 77 years of accomplishment, exploration, and generosity.

Heidi lived her life by her own rules, always willing to go beyond society’s expectations to achieve her dreams and to care for everyone around her. Her pioneering spirit began at age five when she emigrated from Germany to Canada with her parents and two older sisters. She quickly overcame the language barrier and excelled academically. While in high school in Windsor, Ontario, she met the love of her life, Ole Kristensen. He was her equal in intellect and stubbornness, and she spent the next 58 years showering him in loving opposition. They married shortly after she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Guelph and just before she began a brief career as a high school biology teacher, temporarily accepting her mother’s advice that she had to choose between a family and a career in medicine.

But Heidi wasn’t content with one or the other, and she resumed her education, earning her M.D. from McMaster University in 1976, a year after the birth of her first child and in the midst of a move to Vermont. There she began an internship and later residency at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, finding time to have another child along the way. Further evidence that Heidi never took the easy or expected path.

She worked in Burlington for 32 years as an attending anesthesiologist and the Director of Obstetric Anesthesiology. In this role she worked tirelessly to ensure the best anesthetic care for birthing mothers, improving the childbirth experience for countless Vermont women. Also during this time, she regularly volunteered her time and services at Planned Parenthood of Burlington. In addition, she loved her role as an associate professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, and took great pride in her work with anesthesia residents, seeking to pass along her passion for patient care and comfort.

Heidi retired in 2012, at which point she and Ole were able to spend winters in their condo in Englewood Beach, FL, and return north for the summers where they lived close to family in Belchertown, MA, while continuing to embrace their love of travel, enjoying cruises, safaris, and time with family in Europe and Canada.

After Ole’s death in 2021, Heidi found new ways to contribute to her communities, becoming the president of the condo association at Pelican Landing (her Florida home) and volunteering with Meals on Wheels in both Florida and Massachusetts.

Through it all, her love for family, from her husband, children, and grandchildren to her siblings, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and beyond, was her greatest source of joy, and she was eternally generous and supportive toward all.

Heidi is survived by her two children, Paul (Thea) and Kira (Rachel), her two grandchildren, Rainer and Greta, her two sisters, Marie and Helge, brothers-in-law, Scott and Peter, sisters-in-law Pat and Wanda, and numerous nieces, nephews, and their children, as well as more distant family in Germany and Denmark.

She was predeceased by her parents, Rudi and Martha, her husband Ole, her brother Rainer, and her brother-in-law Walter.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Meals on Wheels, or Doctors Without Borders