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<\/p>\nHundreds of families lost homes in the 2013 Colorado flood. Some lost loved ones.<\/p>\n
Cheron Boland lost both.<\/p>\n
Cheron Boland\u2019s husband, Gerald \u201cGerry\u201d Boland, 80, was one of four tragic deaths within Boulder County as a result of the historic flood that swept through much of the Front Range.<\/p>\n
And while 10 years have come and gone since those fateful days in September, Boland\u2019s widow and three children all agree that not a day passes when his presence isn\u2019t missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for us to talk about it. We want him to be remembered and all of the great things that he did for his community,\u201d Cheron Boland said. \u201cIt means a lot that people still care about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Boland\u2019s youngest child and only son, Brent Boland, explained that had the circumstances been just slightly different on the day he lost his father, had people not been there to help, he and his sisters could have been mourning the loss of both parents.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy mom is such a strong and amazing woman, she\u2019s as resilient as they come,\u201d Brent Boland said. \u201cThis story could just as easily be about her because she was willing to do the same thing for my dad that he did for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the early-morning hours on Sept. 12, Cheron and Gerald Boland received a warning to evacuate their home just north of Lyons to reach higher ground. In an effort to save their vehicles, Cheron Boland drove the car, and her husband drove the truck.<\/p>\n
While trying to reach their daughter\u2019s home in Hygiene, the two became separated in the torrential downpour. U.S. 36 on the east end of Lyons was entirely consumed by the St. Vrain River, making it impossible to leave town.<\/p>\n
Cheron Boland pulled into the parking lot of the Outlaw Saloon on Main Street to look out for her husband. There she sat for hours in the pouring rain until the break of day.<\/p>\n
No sight of him.<\/p>\n
Fire crews were redirecting people to Lyons Elementary School, which had been designated as an emergency shelter, so she left the parking lot to circle the school, thinking he might be there.<\/p>\n
Still no sight of him.<\/p>\n
Rather than staying in the safety of the shelter, Cheron Boland chose to head back home in search of her husband. Little did she know, before her arrival he, too, had left the shelter in search of her.<\/p>\n
Driving home, the car engine\u00a0stalled out in the rising waters, leaving her no choice but to call 911. Rescue crews eventually arrived in a tractor to carry her back to the very shelter she had just left.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the stories are about my dad and rightfully so,\u201d Brent Boland said. \u201cHe gave up his life trying to make sure he was taking care of his wife, but I think it gets overlooked that my mom did the same thing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cheron Boland now resides at Hover Manor in Longmont, where she decorates her residence with recovered photos that once hung from the walls of her Apple Valley Road home of 50 years \u2014 anything just above four feet that the floodwaters failed to reach.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m doing pretty well now. I\u2019ve got a lot of friends, and I\u2019ve got three great kids,\u201d Cheron Boland said. \u201cBut Gerald missed out on the three great-grandchildren that he\u2019s never going to get to meet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The youngest of the three great-grandchildren, born a year and a half ago, won\u2019t have the chance to know her great-grandfather, but she\u2019ll always know where her name came from.<\/p>\n
The Boland\u2019s eldest daughter, Holli Stetson, said \u201cSunny\u201d was her father\u2019s nickname, so when it came time for Stetson\u2019s daughter Nicky to name a daughter of her own, she said it was nothing short of an honor to pass Sunny down to the newest branch on the family tree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talk about my dad every time a big event happens, and having a little grandchild named after him is certainly one of those opportunities,\u201d Stetson said. \u201cI have five new family members that never met my dad, so continuing to talk about him and share stories about how he affected his community, valued family and loved my mom, those are things we talk about because it\u2019s a way to make sure we share with those who never met him and try to make sure we do good by him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amy Hoh, the Boland\u2019s middle daughter, has stayed connected to her father over the past 10 years by dedicating a 200-mile bike ride she calls the \u201cBe Sweet 200,\u201d inspired by his last words to her.<\/p>\n
A week before the flood, Hoh had lunch with her family, and before going separate ways, Gerald Boland said the two words he had told his daughter countless times.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoh now embarks on the 11-hour bike ride once a year around the county, which takes her to special locations such as where the family home once stood; Lyons Elementary School, where her father was a teacher and coach for 30 years, and his favorite fishing holes at Bashor Lake.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a very therapeutic and reflective day,\u201d Hoh said. \u201cI just think about all of the things he taught me, all of the lessons he taught me that I didn\u2019t realize were lessons until now that he\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In addition to a memorial in place at the Lyons Elementary School, Hoh said, the Lyons Community Foundation named a scholarship in her father’s honor. The Gerald Boland Memorial Scholarship focuses on recognizing service to the community, something the Boland family felt exemplified what Gerald Boland was truly known best for.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 11, 2013, Wesley Quinlan and Wiyanna Nelson, both 19, lost their lives after climbing out of their vehicle once it became trapped in a mudslide at the intersection of Linden Drive and South Cedar Brook Road just west of Boulder.<\/p>\n
Glenda McCarroll, Quinlan\u2019s mother, said she\u2019s been doing her best to honor her son in the only way that she knows he would have wanted her to.<\/p>\n
She’s picking up the pieces and moving on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just weird still being the mom of a teenager forever,\u201d McCarroll said. \u201cI know he would want me to go onwards and upwards. He and I were very close, and so that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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McCarroll said losing a son was hard enough, but losing her career in IT management as a result of the stress and finding little help thereafter was an additional blow she never expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first year I thought I just needed to take time for myself, take a sabbatical and make sure that I was OK because it was really hard. But my career took a hit. I just couldn\u2019t ever get back to the level that I was,\u201d McCarroll said. \u201cI\u2019m still here struggling today, 10 years later trying to rebound with my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
A resident of the Carbon Valley\u00a0for 16 years, McCarroll found challenges in receiving support after the loss of her son, often being told she didn\u2019t qualify for financial assistance because she did not reside within Boulder County.<\/p>\n
McCarroll said when she was turned away, she reached out to United Way of Weld County, only to be told that all of the available funding had already been given out.<\/p>\n
The only assistance McCarroll ever received was a $100 gift card from the Red Cross two weeks after her son\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like I needed much, I just needed a little help,\u201d McCarroll said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to have your house gone, but to have your family intact, that\u2019s more important. And it almost seemed like they were focused on the tangible items, which I get, but it was almost as if they\u2019d give someone who lost a barn money before they\u2019d actually help out someone who lost a loved one. That\u2019s really what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Because of the experience, McCarroll said she was left with a \u201cbad taste,\u201d which she was able to use as motivation to better her own situation. In May 2016, McCarroll completed a master’s degree in emergency management and homeland security from Arizona State University.<\/p>\n
She now works in consulting with public entities and nonprofits to develop emergency operations plans to help ensure no one ever has to experience what she went through in the midst of a crisis.<\/p>\n
Another positive change for McCarroll within the past 10 years was getting married to high school classmate Kelly McCarroll, in 2020, which McCarroll said was her \u201csaving grace\u201d during a difficult time of starting over.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re having to build yourself overnight, from person A to something entirely new. But I have a good life now. It\u2019s a new life. I miss Wes every day,\u201d McCarroll said. \u201cWes is interwoven through my life with his spirit. I feel his spirit, he was a strong kid, a very spiritual kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2018, a memorial was dedicated at the corner where Quinlan and Nelson lost their lives to honor the two teens along with other victims and everyone who helped with rescue efforts.<\/p>\n
Former Jamestown Mercantile owner Joseph \u201cJoey\u201d Howlett was a man who lived by simple principles.<\/p>\n
One such principle:\u00a0Never charge people to use the restroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years we\u2019ve had a line of 20 cyclists waiting to use the bathroom that aren\u2019t planning on buying anything. … Some of the employees have said we should have one of those signs that says you have to be a customer to use the bathroom, but I always put my foot down and say, \u2018No, I promised Joey,\u2019\u201d said Rainbow Shultz, owner of the Jamestown Mercantile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s something that Joey was always adamant about, that the ‘Merc’ is a community center, not just a place trying to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howlett died at the age of 72 when a mudslide struck his home on Main Street in Jamestown during the morning of Sept. 12.<\/p>\n
After moving to Colorado in 1969 from Oregon, Howlett purchased the Merc in 1992 with the intention of creating a social center for the residents of Jamestown, even allowing regulars to buy dinners on credit if needed, according to friends.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJoey definitely made a family of his close friends,\u201d Shultz said. \u201cJoey was a friend and father figure to me. He had that role for a lot of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shultz was once an employee at the Merc before Howlett sold the business to her in 2010. Shultz said the two remained close, with Howlett stopping by every morning to give advice on everything from business to relationships, and even officiated at Shultz’s wedding.<\/p>\n
Shultz said that while she\u2019s worked hard over the last 10 years to keep the Merc aligned with Howlett\u2019s vision, and the support of the Jamestown community has remained consistent, the increase in the cost of living in Jamestown and the changes it brought with it have created new challenges to overcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gotten harder for people in the last few years to be able to afford to go to restaurants. So there\u2019s kind of a changing demographic where we have maybe more tourists and people moving in with more money displacing those who were maybe in one of the last really cheap places to live in Boulder County.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Despite rising costs of living, a pandemic and two town fires, Shultz said she keeps Howlett\u2019s \u201cspirit in mind\u201d with every decision she makes to ensure the Merc is always the most accessible place for the community and a home for \u201cevery person of every walk of life,\u201d just as Howlett strived to do before her.<\/p>\n
Shultz and fellow Jamestown residents have ensured the memory of Howlett lives on with a sign marking Howlett’s Gulch, where the mudslide struck his home; a plaque at Longmont\u2019s Sunset Golf Course; and a memorial bench with Howlett\u2019s golf clubs at the local cemetery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think it\u2019s important as new people move into Jamestown and move into the area that they\u2019re aware of what a special person we had as our unofficial patriarch because he was a really fun, beautiful, loving person,\u201d Shultz said.<\/p>\n