Amy Ellen Gillie

Amy Ellen (Polson) Gillie, formerly of Shelley, Idaho, died of complications from a series of strokes on July 24, 2010 at Laurel Regional Hospital in Laurel, Maryland.

Amy was born March 4, 1963, in Logan, Utah, the third child and first daughter of David E. and Ann H. Polson of Shelley, Idaho. When Amy was young, her mother was very ill and Amy assumed much of the duties of keeping the home and raising her younger sister. It was then that Amy developed the patience, compassion, and sense of responsibility for which she would be known all her life. Amy grew up in several Midwestern States and Idaho, and graduated from Shelley High School, Shelley, Idaho, in 1981. In 1984 and 1985, she served as a missionary in the Lisbon, Portugal, Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). She would treasure all her life her love for the Portuguese people and their language, cuisine, and music. Upon completing her missionary service she returned to school and received an Associate’s Degree in Business from Stevens Henager College, Provo, Utah in 1987 before beginning a brief career with Beneficial Life.

While in Provo, Amy met her future husband, David Reed Gillie. They married in the LDS Idaho Falls Temple December 17, 1988. Amy followed her husband’s Navy career in various assignments in California and on the American East Coast. Her unerring sense for other people’s interests and perspectives made her his greatest professional counselor and most trusted mentor. On March 5, 1990, the two were blessed with a son, Benjamin Ur. Not long after his birth, though, Amy developed a Pituitary Adenoma, which caused a number of life-long and painful debilitations. She faced the many ensuing surgeries and treatments, chronic and severe pain, and her greatest trial—the end of her dreams of a large family— with grace, patience, cheer, and great courage. She simply insisted upon finding fun in life and giving joy to others.

Amy loved all music. She loved to play the piano and sing with “her boys,” and would serenade them on the piano at night after they’d gone to bed. Though her continued illness prevented further formal education, Amy continued to educate herself deeply and broadly for much of her life. She shared with her husband a love for European, classical, and sacred history and the lives of men and women who moved the world. She initiated “her boys” into the joys of Cary Grant’s movies, children’s literature, Jane Austin’s novels, and O’Henry’s stories.

Amy delighted in every aspect of mothering her son. Blessed with a gift for lively expression and interpretation, she read to her son from his earliest months and, when he came of school age, regularly read to his classmates. She served as his Cub Scout Pack Leader and became his most ardent fan in his sporting activities. She rejoiced to see him blossom into a confident, determined, athlete and gentleman.

With her husband, Amy early instilled in their son Benjamin a deep love for our Heavenly Father and the Savior. She shared with him frequently and earnestly her own very personal knowledge of God and fired him to gain his own deep knowledge of the things of greatest worth. The spiritual knowledge and faith that became his personal possessions would ground his life’s decisions. Her greatest personal triumph was to see her son accept a call to missionary service as she had done. Reading his letters from the field constituted her greatest joy until the week of her passing.

On April 25, 2010, Amy suffered the first of a series of strokes that led to her untimely death three months later. She is survived by her  husband, David Reed, of Jessup, Maryland; her son, Benjamin Ur, currently serving in Twin Falls, Idaho; her mother and father, Ann and David Polson of Shelley, Idaho; her brothers Michael Polson of Memphis, Tennessee, and Tod Polson of Riverton, Wyoming; her sister, Peggy Ann Barney of Colfax, Washington; and numerous in-laws, nieces and nephews.

It was observed at her passing that no one’s life had ever been made bitter, while many lives had been made sweeter, by association with her. She was greatly loved and will be painfully missed.

Funeral Services will be July 28, 2010 in Maryland.  Graveside services will be 12:00 P.M. Saturday, July 31

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at the Taylor Cemetery.  The family will receive friends Friday evening from 7:00 till 8:30 and Saturday from 10:00 till 11:30 at Nalder Funeral Home (110 West Oak) in Shelley.