Ann Weatherill lived her life to the fullest, whether she was teaching, biking, or running the computer for the swim meets. More importantly, she was intensely involved in the lives of her family, and nothing mattered more to her than her family. Charles, Natalie and Emily, and her whole extended family were the recipients of her love and of her quick wit. Appropriately, I first met Ann while on a ride with the Wheatland Wheelers to Waitsburg. We kept up a constant stream of chatter that hasn’t stopped for all of these years since.
She had been teaching in the Peace Corps in Paraguay at the same time that my husband and I had been teaching in Kenya. We had in common all the stories of living in a village in the third world; the realization of what was truly important in life, and of dealing with the frustrations of a different culture, including the intestinal bugs and malaria that come with village life. This experience living in Paraguay gave her a great depth of understanding of her Hispanic students, their culture, and their language.
Ann always sought to bring out the best in people, but was not afraid to be frank when someone was messing around. In the cycling community she was always a sparkplug, and had a gift for making even the most miserable situations funny, with the occasional salty phrase.
Ann was always looking for a new challenge. That led her to cycling in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons; The Swan river valley in Montana, in the Blue Mountains to Wallowa Lake, and over the North Cascades. She completed 200 miles in a day on the STP Seattle to Portland event. When she was done she said to me: “been there, done that, never doin’ that again!”
A number of years ago we went on an Adventure Cycling tour of the North Cascades and Stevens Pass. The ride Director asked if we were sisters; we said no, only in spirit. He then spent the rest of the week teasing us that we must be mother and daughter and asking which one of us was the mother.
We often joked that the reason that we biked was so that we could eat…and eat some more. Saturday morning group rides were merely the pretense for cinnamon rolls at Merchants afterwards. Bike tours were the excuse for wholesale consumption of calories. In the Yellowstone tour the typical after bike pre-shower snack was a quart of chocolate milk and a Reese’s peanut butter cup. And after the shower, there was of course a full meal – and a beer. Coffee was always the main fuel for conversation. There was the perennial argument about whose turn it was to pay for our lattes; we were each sure that it was our turn. It can now be revealed that Ann had an even poorer memory of who paid last than I did.
Ann was always there for her friends, no matter what the need. Her response was always practical and frank.
I will always remember Ann’s joy of life and living.
Ann, may the Lord bless you and keep you,
May He make his face to shine upon you,
And may the wind be always at your back.
