My mom’s sister Sue and her husband George moved to Aspen soon after my cousin Amy was born in late 1964. My uncle George, a civil engineer, was hired to survey a new neighborhood next to the golf course. He was offered the entire subdivision for a reasonable price, but he couldn’t afford it on his own, and he couldn’t convince his older siblings it was a good investment. So, he settled on payment with one beautiful flat lot with a view of The Prince of The Peace Chapel and the Maroon Bells. There he built a beautiful home for he and his two daughters and my Aunt. I can remember every inch of that beautiful house and the memories of visiting often in the late 60s and 70s. My cousin Erin, five years older, would play her guitar for us and we would sing songs by a little known artist named John Denver. My aunt was a school teacher in town, and she remembered when John wandered into her school one day asking if he could play his songs for the kids.

George and Sue made life long friends of the families they met in those days, the days that made Aspen what it is today.

They moved to Arizona when their girls were older but they kept the property for handsome rental income, and continued to return and stay with their friends their whole lives. In 1985 Amy returned to Colorado for good and she convinced me to come along for her first summer. For the first few weeks, while looking for a place to live, we stayed with some of their old friends - Maryann and Peter Greene of Starwood. Restarauteurs, Maryann’s counsel and comfort was a great inspiration to us, and she went on to write a book called “Bonnie’s at One” which is a cookbook and memoir of their life owning the main restaurant on Aspen Mountain, Bonnie’s. I love that she wrote about their lives at this pivotal time in this special valley.

Thankfully, that summer I finished my college year earlier in May than Amy did in Arizona, so I spent my May at home baking breads “just in case we needed it.” We were naive not to realize that apartments charged first months rent, last months rent, and a security deposit all at once… so we spent everything we had securing a place - a studio apartment for $400 per month, sharing the pull out couch for a bed - so we survived on that bread! We only bought a few meager groceries and we would take them to the park below our apartment for dinner each night - (Where the John Denver Memorial now exists). We’d often be accompanied by Amy’s old friends who she had gone to elementary school with, and were happy she had returned… Occasionally Maryann would ask us back to Starwood and we’d be overjoyed for the free meal.

So it began for an adventure in Aspen that for her would last a lifetime. She fell in love there with Blake, moved to Denver to teach and raise her two sons, and just in 2022, Amy and Blake returned home, to the beautiful valley that has always been her home.

Uncle George finally sold their property when the time felt right, and with the proceeds George showed Aunt Sue the high life. But we lost Sue too soon …in 2013. Any year would have been too soon… George made sure to remind us that his love affair would never be over. But we were so glad to see him recover and today, at 94, he still skis bikes and hikes and drives himself back and forth between Colorado and Arizona to see his wonderful girlfriend Barbara and travel the world. Just this year he and Barbara visited Jordan and Egypt and they also went on a bike trip in Holland. George is truly a Legend.

Peter and I spent many years returning to Snowmass with our young kids and visiting Amy’s elementary school friend Bill and Deb Madsen, who had become dear friends of mine as well, and who never left this legendary valley… In fact today Billy is the Mayor of Snowmass. But as time went on, I found the need to travel further south, to Telluride, where the changes inevitable by time weren’t as jarring or personal.

To this day, John Denver’s music is soothing and special to me, and reminds me, of home.