After , it took 25 years for a permanent memorial to be created. But it took less than a year for a memorial sculpture to be laid for Cedar Cove residents Evelyn Starner and Patty Goodwine, who died when the Big Thompson Canyon flooded again last September.
“When we lost those two ladies, I said we cannot wait 25 years to have something put there for them,” said Barb Anderson, who sits on the board of the nonprofit that raised funds for the first memorial.
“My brain kicked into gear as much as it could after going through the flood,” said Anderson, who survived the flood of 1976 and also made it through last year’s flood.
She considers it those who lost their lives.
This July, friends and family of Starner and Goodwine gathered for a special tribute at the annual ceremony for those who lost their lives in the 1976 flood of the Big Thompson.
created a sculpture — a bronze heart set on stone pedestal— for the two women, which is set next to the first flood memorial.
The heart symbolizes the community’s love for the two women, and the love of the people who live in the canyon for its beauty.
“Where your heart is is where you need to be,” said Anderson, who moved back to the canyon after the 1976 flood.
The community of Cedar Cove sits on a dirt road just below a sharp bend in the Big Thompson, about 5 miles east of Drake.
Both women were swept away after a 10-foot wall of water hit their neighborhood.
Goodwine, 60, who worked 34 years at the Loveland Public Library, flood. When her husband died in 2006, she continued living in the home she so loved, just 50 feet from the river.
Starner, 79, who worked in the rehabilitation department at the Good Samaritan Village in Loveland, .
“Don’t worry about me … save yourself!” she urged her friend.
The bronze heart, nestled near the 1976 memorial, speaks volumes to Starner’s daughter, Debbie Routh, who came from Missouri to attend the memorial ceremony, meeting up with 17 other members of the family.
“I think the heart also represents the fact that these two beautiful ladies will live forever in the hearts of so many,” she said.
