Jacie Daily has lived almost her whole life in Grand County. Born in Trinidad, Colorado, she came to Williams Fork when she was two weeks old.

Robert “Bob” Fisher spent many vacations fishing on Williams Fork Reservoir. During these trips, he felt called to make Grand County home. He moved to Kremmling to spend his retirement years.

Both Daily and Fisher are spending their twilight years at Cliffview Assisted Living Center, which provides housing for more than 20 seniors and adults who need some level of care.

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They sat down together with Sky-Hi News to share stories of their past and what they enjoy about this chapter at Cliffview.

Life on the Williams Fork

Daily, 88, grew up with her brothers and sisters in a secluded spot on the Williams Fork, a tributary of the Colorado River in Grand County.

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She recounted winters when there was lots of snow. Her father built a motorized rope tow so the kids could have their own ski hill.

Daily and her siblings went to elementary and middle school in a one-room schoolhouse called Columbine. The tiny building had a barn in the back and two outhouses. She would walk about a half-mile to school. Some of the other students would get driven by their parents or would ride horses to school.

“We had eight grades in one room,” Daily recalled. “In first grade, we had the biggest class; there were four of us. A wonderful thing is I’m still in touch with one of the ones I started first grade with.”

To this day, the two friends exchange birthday and Christmas cards.

Daily attended high school in Kremmling. After graduation, she married and started a family. She went on to have six children — three girls and three boys. She mostly raised her family in Kremmling.

“There was a time I lived in Texas and Louisiana, but Colorado’s home,” she said.  

Daily said her husband, Fred, was originally from Louisiana. They met shortly after he ended his service at Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos), when she was working at a grocery store in Texas.  

“He walked in and asked for an application,” she said “… I found a sweetheart. I was married for 51 years and 10 months.”

The family eventually moved back to Kremmling, where Fred worked for DMJ Contractors. He helped put the roof on Cliffview as one of his construction projects.

After Fred retired, the couple moved back south. But when Fred got muscular dystrophy, the couple decided to move back to Kremmling.

Daily has lived at Cliffview for three years.

“I just like the care we get here. It’s amazing,” she said. “Good food. I’m very satisfied with Cliffview. I couldn’t ask for better treatment.”

She added that her son, Duane, who lives in town, visits about four to six times a week.

“He shows up at 4 o’clock, and at 5 o’clock he leaves because I go in for supper,” she said. “Not only that, any kind of doctor’s appointment or thing I have, he takes me. He’s a blessing.”

A passion for fishing

Fisher, 89, has been fishing all over the world, but one of his favorite places to cast a line is here in Grand County. He moved to Kremmling — what he calls “a great little town” — after living in Denver for a long time.

Fisher was raised on the shores of Lake Superior near the Canadian border, where the winters were brutal.

He is a veteran, having served for three years in the U.S. Army when he was young. He traveled through Europe during his service, and played basketball on the armed forces team.

When Fisher ended his service, he played basketball at Michigan State University. He also coached for a short period. He eventually moved to Colorado and spent most of his working life in Denver. For 16 years, he would make the trip to Kremmling to go fishing at Wolford Mountain Reservoir and the surrounding areas.

The first time Fisher visited Grand County was 1964, when he and friends fished at Williams Fork Reservoir.

“We caught some nice fish, so we kept coming back,” he recounted. “That’s beautiful country up there on the Williams Fork.”

As Fisher grew older, he was eager to leave city life. A friend he knew in Kremmling encouraged him to move to the town since he enjoyed vacationing here.

“The people in this town are really great,” Fisher said. … “They’re polite, the youngsters are polite and appreciate older people. People are always holding the door for me — and I’m sure for Jacie — if we go shopping.”

Fisher has been at Cliffview for less than a year. He moved into the care facility after being at Silver Spruce Apartments, a senior home next door, for two years.

The transition from independence to senior living can be a challenging one, but he enjoyed living at Silver Spruce since he had a kitchen in his apartment. He loves to cook, which he learned young, thanks to his mother — “a wonderful cook” — his seven aunts and his grandmothers. He was the oldest of 60 grandchildren.

Fisher eventually moved from Silver Spruce to Cliffview because he needed a higher level of care. Thankfully, Cliffview includes a communal kitchen, so he can still use his cooking skills.

“If you have to be somewhere like here, I don’t think you’d want to be anywhere else,” he said about assisted living.

Life at Cliffview

Fisher said he especially enjoys living at Cliffview because of the staff, including Director Karrie Sellke, who he said makes Cliffview a comfortable place to live.

“Everyone here is wonderful,” he said. “I just love everybody here.”

If he had a complaint, it would be that the facility “buys green beans by the truckload,” he joked, adding, “I hate green beans and carrots.”

When he first arrived at Cliffview, Fisher said he had COVID-19. He dropped almost 50 pounds because he stopped eating, he said. Now, he’s almost back to his original weight, thanks to meals the staff cooks.

“So I can’t complain about the food,” he said. “Now I never miss a meal.”

Cliffview serves three meals a day in the dining room, where residents can gather and socialize.

Staff also provides transportation to go shopping or to appointments.

“That’s a big benefit,” Fisher said. … “We get transportation all the way down to Denver if we need it.”  

Fisher also enjoys the activities that staff organizes, such as drive-in movie nights. Nearly every day, there is an activity or outing that residents can take part in.

Fisher talked about his experience traveling to Winter Park Resort in February to watch the National Sports Center for the Disabled’s Wells Fargo Ski Cup. Patrick Halgren, one of the adaptive skiers at the ski cup, frequently visits the seniors at Cliffview and has even brought them medals.

“He’s magnificent,” Fisher said. “He arranged for us to stand on the deck to see the skiing, and it was just a wonderful day.”

Fisher is looking forward to fishing trips with old friends on Wolford Reservoir this spring. He has extra lures and poles for anyone at Cliffview who would like to join. There will also be a pontoon boat trip for Cliffview residents in the summer.

After telling their stories, Daily and Fisher got ready to head into the dining room for lunch. Many other seniors were starting to gather at the tables, some of whom had just finished watching dancers perform in the center.

A calendar along the wall let residents know what activities were planned for the day ahead.

“You can see why we’re happy here,” Fisher said. “There’s always lots of good stuff going on.”