By LYNETTE HAALAND, Four Points News
Local mother-of-four Heidy Arteaga, who was expecting her fifth child, passed away last week, several weeks before her 41st birthday.
Born May 22, 1977 Heidy Elizabeth Casares Arteaga unexpectedly died along with her unborn daughter, Chloe Nicole Arteaga, on May 7, from complications from a respiratory infection. She was about 23 weeks along in her pregnancy.
Heidy is survived by her adoring husband of eight years, Anthony Arteaga, and their son, Grayson, 7, a 1st grader at Grandview Hills Elementary.
She is also survived by her former husband Chad Sohrt and their children, Kristian,19, who graduated from Vandegrift last year and played football, Karson, 17, VHS junior, who plays football and runs track, and Kyleigh, 12, 6th grader at Four Points Middle School who just made the school cheer squad. She also is survived by two step-children as well, Madison, 18, and Caleb,15, Arteaga.
A celebration of Heidy’s life will be held on Saturday, May 19.
“Not afraid to speak her mind and always so supportive of her friends and family, she was an amazing woman, coach, team mom, wife, mother and friend,” said Dionn Schaffner, a friend and retired Four Points Pop Warner Cheer director.
“She taught me a lot about grace and moving forward not by what she said, but by what she did,” Schaffner said.
Heidy was more than a typical “cheer mom”, she coached as well with Four Points Pop Warner Cheer. She signed up to be the volunteer coach for Kyleigh’s cheer team in 2013.
Schaffner said that Kyleigh showed an immediate and promising future in cheerleading and the following year joined a competitive all-star team at Cheer Athletics.
Even though her daughter was no longer cheering with FPPW, Heidy continued to be a cheer coach and coached her team to wins at Central Texas Pop Warner and Southwest Region Pop Warner earning a trip to compete at the National Pop Warner Cheer Championships in Orlando, Fla. in 2014.
“She always went all-in on whatever she was doing and then went some more,” Schaffner said. “Whether it was cheering for her beloved Cowboys… or cheering on her kids or her friends or her community, you could always count on Heidy to be there when you needed her.”
Heidy was an avid Dallas Cowboys fan, basking in every win and even got to be part of a halftime show at a game once.
Her obituary shares that Heidy “loved and lived life to the fullest with a positive outlook and always had a smile on her face. She had a gift for making people laugh which was a source of great joy to her family.”
She is greatly missed by many in the community and here are a few tributes from those who knew her best:
“This one leaves a big hole in the Four Points community. Heidy Arteaga coached cheer for so many of our kiddos and was always an uplifting and positive influence to all she came in contact with…such a wonderful role model.”
“Heidy my friend, you impacted so many lives just by being you, graced us with your smile, your laughter but most importantly your friendship.”
“To know Heidy Arteaga was to know the love of an amazing woman, coach, mother and friend. A testament to her impact across teams, communities and cities can be seen by the GoFundMe drives, t-shirt sales, meal trains, candlelight vigils and much more.”
“There are very few people who can make the room light up with smiles when they walk in, but Heidy Arteaga had that same effect by a simple Facebook post, she carried such a beautiful spirit. I will miss seeing her post about her precious kids, her excitement about baby Chloe, and her support for our Cowboys.”
“She is dancing in the heavens with her sweet Chloe and her dad, watching over all of us. She will still be cheering on her Dallas Cowboys, our Vipers football team, and our FPPW teams and cheerleaders, and cheering on her Cheer Athletics girls during every competition, because that’s what she did. She was everyone’s sideline cheerleader.”
A celebration of Heidy’s life will be held on Saturday, May 19 at 3:30 p.m. at Cook-Walden Chapel of the Hills, 9700 Anderson Mill Rd. 78750.
Coach Heidy and Coach Dee Dee at National Pop Warner Cheer Championships several years ago.
Heidy Arteaga — local mother-of-four who was expecting her fifth child — passed away on May 7 from complications from a respiratory infection. She’s shown here with her husband Anthony, and children Kristian, Karson, Kyleigh and Grayson.