SARAHKAY E. HEIKELL

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COLUMBIA, Md. - Sarahkay Elizabeth Heikell, age 33, wife of Mark Allen Heikell Jr., died on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, at Howard County General Hospital.

Born in Columbia, South Carolina, she was a daughter of retired Master Sgt. Melvin Andrew Wilson and Lisa Ann Spitler Wilson. Sarahkay was a happy and energetic child. She grew up on Shaw Air Force Base. Her family made one military move to Pope Air Force Base for three years when her father was stationed there in support of the F-16's. The family returned to Shaw Air Force Base in 1996. Sarahkay attended Thomas Sumter Academy for two years before attending and graduating from Sumter High School in 2003. Shortly after graduating from Sumter High School, Kay met Airman Mark Heikell, of Washington State, at the First Corner Coffee House in Sumter, where the two enjoyed much coffee, music, friendships and words together while falling in love. After a two-year romance, Kay and Mark married on a windy stretch of Folly Beach on March 5, 2005, then went LARP'ing together at MagiQuest.

On June 1, 2005, after much labor of pain and love, and a brief argument about names, which she fortunately won, Kay gave birth to her and Mark's beautiful son, Ayden Marcus Heikell (also dubbed "My Lurfee Burrito" by his adoring mother). Kay, Mark and Ayden traveled around the country, through hardships and joy, for the next five years, before landing in Maryland in October 2010, where they lived for the next seven years. During these 15 years of her life, Kay took great joy and honor in loving her husband, working on self-improvement, sharing her love and empathetic insight with friends, classmates and strangers alike, and in raising Ayden to be a loving, thoughtful, caring and strong person. When Kay finally rested on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, after a lifelong, heroic battle with various and constant manifestations of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and fibromyalgia, she had just completed her second semester of political science and Arabic language at Howard County Community College.

Kay was an honest, witty, empathetic, just, strong, outgoing and a glittery person, who impacted the lives of almost everyone she met. It was hard to have a conversation for longer than 10 minutes with her without coming away from it having learned something deep and important about oneself. Kay lived her life guided by her love for and value of each person she met, as well as the billions she would never meet.

Surviving in addition to her husband and parents are a son, Ayden Marcus Heikell of Elkridge, Maryland; maternal grandparents, Barbara A. Spitler Clark and Dr. David B. Clark of Findlay, Ohio; and a sister, MaryAnn Wilson of Baltimore.

She was preceded in death by a maternal grandfather, Joseph E. Spitler; and paternal grandparents, Samuel A. Wilson and Annie Belle Hubbard Wilson.

A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Bullock Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Terry L. Johns and Dr. David B. Clark officiating.

The family will receive friends two hours prior to the service from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at Bullock Funeral Home.

You may go to www.bullockfuneralhome.com and sign the family's guest book.

The family has chosen Bullock Funeral Home for the arrangements.