Obituary: Jennifer Ann Boland

Dear Jennifer:

Now that you have finished your brave fight against ovarian cancer and left us only the memory of 56 years of your life, we tearfully must say goodbye. 

You started life fighting to breathe in a hospital incubator and ended it fighting to hold on to life in a hospital bed at home. As in everything you did, you did it your way and refused to fall in line with the accepted procedure or conventional expectations.

You were one of those rare individuals who loved and took the time to fully appreciate the wonders of nature. Watching the moon rise and hiking in the forest as nature displayed the beauties of every season were, for you, a constant joy.

You loved animals, especially your dogs, Jasmine, Chelsea, and Chelsea’s puppies, Simba and Nala. The two of us together, with our dogs, enjoyed many years of wonderful outings talking about the ups and downs of our brief lives.

And you were a wonderful and incredibly gifted musician. The conventional musical world was yours for the asking. You were a teenage prodigy on the clarinet and had the good fortune to study with the first-chair clarinet players of the Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Denver orchestras.

However, alas, you fell in love with Rock and Roll and switched to alto and tenor saxophones, playing in local groups. You also had a very nice voice and played guitar and piano quite well.

You were an excellent double-diamond skier and ski instructor at Snowmass and later at Sunlight. Contrary to expectations, you recovered enough, after your first chemotherapy and unconventional non-western medicine treatment, to teach the entire 2018-2019 season at Sunlight without missing a day, and you were named “employee of the year.”

Your courage and determination to remain positive and enjoy what was left of your life during the last eight months of your life spent in bed showed incredible courage and strength of character.

You will be missed by your sister, Wendy Ann Boland, your brother-in-law, James Andrew Roman, your nephew, Paul Clay Roman, your niece, Briana Jaye Boland, and your fellow impractical musician, philosophical hiking companion, and loving father, Clay Boland Jr.