A Remembrance of Ellen Polly (Polyhronopoulou)

As I read the many postings that Ellen made to mudcat, it came to me that she touched the lives of many more catters that I was aware of. Because of this, I decided to write some personal memories of Ellen. This will be long:

My first meeting with her was one of those events that stay with you all your life. It was about twenty years ago and I was visiting the late Walt Robertson in Honolulu. He had been telling me about this wonderful lady he'd met, but he was keeping her under wraps until just the right moment. Walt was like that! That moment came as Walt and I rode our motorcycles out one day. I was following him and I pulled in behind him at a left hand turn lane. Suddenly another motorcycle pulled along side him and I saw this beautiful woman. Then she leaned over and kissed Walt! I still remember
thinking: "Keerist ... what a friendly town!" Of course they had "staged" this for my benefit.

This turned out to be the lovely Ellen. She and I quickly bonded and the three of us had great adentures together. During my second Honolulu visit I was awestruck as I watched the two of them perform the leads on stage in C.S. Lewis' "Shadow Lands."

Ellen and I became even closer when Walt was passing away of cancer at his Kingston, Washington home. Ellen came over and helped him through that three month process. I would go over on Sunday's and relieve her so she could maintain some sense of sanity. After Walt passed, she stayed with Bride Judy and me for several weeks while she figured out what she wanted to do next. It was then that she decided to move to London.

She came over here for a visit about two years ago. We all had great fun and talks. And I was able to help her fullfill one her lifelong dreams ... to catch a trout. I don't know who more surprised, Ellen or the fish!

She was diagnosed with breast cancer about nine months ago. She had the lumpectomy and against medical advice, elected to NOT receive any treatment. This decision was pure Ellen, and none of us who knew her well were surprised. Few tried to talk her out of that decision ... once she made up her mind ... you'd best keep out her way.

She arrived here in the Seattle area about three weeks ago. She moved with a longtime girlfriend and her family. Judy and I had a long visit with her two weeks ago. And then I had a long, and private, visit with her just two days before she passed. Her passing was very peaceful.

Ellen was one of the most amazing persons I've even met. She was brilliant ... her mind came up with stuff that just made you shake your head and say ... "Why in the hell didn't I think of that?" Her hours in London, being nine hours ahead of my clock, worked perfectly for us. I'm always at my desk at three in the morning, and we could e-mail, and mud chat all we wanted. We "talked" this way at least every other day. She was the rare "buddy" to whom I could say anything. I'd dump on her, she'd dump on me. She'd argue with me in return, and I'd do the same.

You might all appreciate our last words to each other. It's a phrase that we both learned from Walt. At our goodby, for her to say this was "so Ellen."

"C'est la god damned vie" bob nelson