Ann Goldthwait
Ann Goldthwait died Sept. 3, 2024. At home in Sheridan, Montana.
She died as she lived … bravely, and with an enduring love for family, friends, and the natural world.
Ann was a pillar of strength and grace. She vigorously hiked the hills, tackled physically demanding work without hesitation, passionately loved life, and faced her terminal illness with the courage of a lion. She read and gardened avidly and cooked chef-quality meals. She greeted friends with an earnest smile, warm hugs, good humor, and thoughtful gifts of homemade soup and bread.
She traveled widely. In the first chapter of her life, she moved from Illinois to Vietnam, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Montana. Ann and Glenn met in Whitefish and together began the second chapter of their lives. They married in Polebridge in 2002. With Ann on the back of Glenn’s Harley, they honeymoon’d at Chico Hot Springs. They toured the Oregon Coast, Mexico, and Guatemala, and enjoyed motorcycle rallies in Sturgis, South Dakota. Ann and Glenn both loved camping, first under a tarp where Ann discovered the comfort of sleeping in a buffalo robe. They migrated to a tent and ultimately an Airstream, which Ann loved.
She experienced nature without fear. On one solo hike in Glacier National Park, she heard rustling in the brush. Ann found herself standing between a sow grizzly bear on one side of the trail and her cub on the other. The sow stepped onto the trail and circled Ann. Ann spoke to the bear, "I have babies too, and I’m not going to hurt your baby." The sow walked back into the brush, with cub in tow. Ann walked on.
Ann started work at age sixteen. She waitressed and cooked for many years, opened a daycare center, and then a gift shop at the Kalispell airport. She developed her talents as an artist, painting tiles and producing murals with them. Ann named her shop Kindred Spirits, in appreciation for her fellow artists most of whom were Montana-based. Combining her extraordinary business and artistic skills, she built the business into a very successful art gallery/gift shop.
Ann and Glenn closed the Whitefish business and moved to Sheridan in 2005, where Ann opened a new Kindred Spirits shop. Upon her "retirement," she and Glenn began restoring old houses.
She cared deeply for her husband Glenn; her brother Jim, his wife Michelle, and their children Zach, Laurel, and Hailey; her brother Charlie and her sister Susan; her daughter Kelly, her husband Aaron, their children Meli and Theo, and his son Jack; her daughter Heidi and her daughter Alyssa; and her stepdaughter Rose, her partner Rob, and their daughter Zahri. Family cats and schnauzers too.
Ann was a wonderful person. A special person. She made each of us who knew her a better person. She made the world a better place.
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In 2025 when the flowers at Jackson’s Garden in Sheridan are in bloom, family and friends will gather in honor and memory of Ann. Date to be determined.