Good-bye, Anne

The world lost a wonderful lady on Saturday.  Her mailing address said "Boulder," her home for 35 years had been on Sugarloaf Mountain, in a beautiful meadow.  She was well-known and loved by her neighbors and family, by the members of the Nederland Senior Center, and by members of her church, St. Rita's Catholic Church.  She taught school for many years - and her students loved her.
  She was born in England on 7 July.  Her birth name was Anne Cameron Forrester.  Her bloodlines were Scots, English and Irish.  She grew up in Yorkshire, and earned her teaching certificate in Leeds.  She married a young man, and had four children; three daughters and a son.  Anne and her husband grew apart, and divorced, after moving to the United States.  In 1980, she married a second time - Gordon "Scotty" Snow, and had her family children numbers increased by six.  They were Scotty's kids from his first marriage, to Elizabeth "Betty" Sanborn.  Once she had grandchildren, we all called her "Grandma Anne."
   Anne listened to all problems that the kids had, and always had a sensible solution.  She was a firm believer in truth and justice.  Anne loved nature, flowers, the outdoors and animals.  She painted and sewed, and she loved to hike in the mountains.
  Anne Snow was my sister's mother-in-law.  Anne took me in as one of her own children.  We had fascinating discussions of English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish history.  She had immovable beliefs regarding the British Royal Family - like Queen Elizabeth, adored Princess Diana, disliked Camilla, and liked Kate Middleton.  She adored Prince George and the new Princess, Charlotte.  And she was a true raised in the fold and dyed in the wool Roman Catholic.
   Scrabble was Anne's favorite game; she was fiercely competitive about it, and usually won 99 of 100 games played.  I can only remember "stumping" her with a single word - gorget - and she still beat me by 300 points in that game...
   Anne was in her 80s, getting close to 90 years old.  She had plans to go hiking with her neighbors late Saturday morning.  When she didn't arrive, they tried to call, and got no answer.  The husband of the couple walked to Anne's house, crossing the meadow on deer trails.  Anne's car was in the garage.  He knocked on the door and got no response.  He called her phone and got no answer.  He used his key, opened the door, and called her name - and got no response.  He found her in the laundry room, where she was folding clean clothes.  Her cat, Tabitha, was crouched by her hand.  Anne apparently died from a heart attack, and passed away peacefully.
   We have lost a corner-stone of the family.  Rest in peace, Anne Forrester Snow.

General Things

Our weather folks had said that Monday would be the coldest day of the week; for some arcane reason I believed them.  It was much colder yesterday, and is in the teens this morning, even though they say we'll reach 40 degrees today.  It's snowing in the mountains already, and 2.2 inches are predicted for the day up in Nederland.  We might get anything from a sprinkle to 2 inches tonight.  And people are picking at the weather prognosticators, wanting to know if it will snow on Christmas this year.  Since the white people have been keeping records here in Colorado, it has snowed on Christmas only 14% of the time.  But, the forecasters say that we might get snow next Thursday night.  Having spent the majority of my Christmases in Florida, snow is like a dream, seen in movies and delightful on screen.  It's very cold and messy in person.
   Grandma Anne has been living by herself up on Sugarloaf Mountain, between Boulder and Nederland, since her husband passed away.  For the past few years, she has had Tabitha, a grey tabby shelter cat as her main companion.  Anne, who is in her late 80s, fell on Sunday and broke her right leg.  She had a pin placed in it yesterday, but I'm not sure when she'll be going home from the hospital.  I hate to admit it, but once I asked about Anne's comfort, I immediately asked about Tabitha and her care....  Anne's neighbor is stopping by the house twice a day to look in on Tabby, and give her some company.
   I'm getting ready to head over to the Dellwood house - I need to let the hens out and see if they've laid any eggs; and then I need to feed and love on Carter and Xuxa and clean their litter box before I leave.  My kits have been staying curled up either in bed, or in the dirty clothes hamper since Sunday.  I must say that they have been extremely snuggly with our (finally) seasonal chill.  Rosie is still taking it easy on her walks, and Dr. Katie will see her this morning for an acupuncture and laser treatment, so I'll walk her an hour later than usual today, and then swing by and walk Lucy...  And I need to check in with a new client to see if she really wants me to care for her kits, or not, between Christmas and New Year's.
   And, I find I suddenly want to shoot my television.  All because of a commercial - for a Maserati Ghibli.  It's been shown every 15 minutes since 6 a.m. this morning, and I'm getting tired of the smirking guy driving the car and doing the commentary...  "... And it's only...."