My friend Polly…

My friend, our friend, Polly Oberosler crossed over to other side last weekend. She and I have worked together for decades, and her words, thoughts and keen observations struck a chord with many in the Gunnison Valley. Polly was one of the good ones. As someone aptly said to me on Monday, “The valley is a little less cool today with her passing.”

There were few people more down to earth than Polly. Talk about authentic. She swam in common sense and dove deep into local history, nature, animals and the cycles of life. The readership for her column in the CB News, Grazing the Tomichi, had a loyal following from people of all ages, backgrounds and sensibilities. She spoke plainly with great depth. That is rare. We were blessed.

Her passing was relatively sudden and surprising. She had texted me less than a few weeks ago apologizing for being “too tired” to write a column for that week. I told her to ‘rest up’ and she appreciated that. Polly said her next piece would probably be on “Health Care and Other issues.” She described coming home from a recent trip to the hospital and depicted her latest travails as a “hell of an odyssey.” I didn’t realize how much of an odyssey she was going through.

After receiving one of her columns early this summer mentioning American White Pelicans that she observed near her home, I went down to her place, hopped in the passenger seat of her truck while Dave was in the back seat and spent a day on the pelican hunt. We never saw any that day, but she and Dave did show me a part of the county I had never been to. They told stories, gave me some history and pointed out unique features of the Cochetopa, and for that I was grateful.

Polly’s last text to me stated she “was doing my best.” There was never any doubt about that. Polly always did her best — and we here in the valley who read her words were better for it. I get that it’s all part of the cycles of life that she wrote about… but man, I’ll miss our friend Polly. She was one of the good ones.

—Mark Reaman