I recently learned about the passing of Bernadine Johnson. Anyone who has read this blog over the years likely won’t recognize the name. However, “The Cat Lady of the Ho Hum” undoubtedly rings familiar. A reader of this blog recently took the time to leave a comment on a post from 2022, Ode to the Cat Lady of the Ho Hum, informing me that Bernadine had died earlier this summer. While this is sad news, at the age of 103 she had certainly lived a very long life.
We last stayed at the Ho Hum in 2023. That year the Firehole Rangers expanded their enrollment to include a Junior Ranger contingent. This included a son, a son-in-law, a future son-in-law, a potential future son-in-law and the friend of a potential future son-in-law. These young bucks who joined us had heard the lore of the Ho Hum and they would not disappointed. Fortunately or unfortunately, the legendary aroma of the Ho Hum front office was not what it had been over the years. While a faint aroma of cats lingered—and may have seemed significant to the unindoctrinated—the Junior Rangers did not get the full, olfactory effect that had been promised.
Bernadine was still running the show that year, and while she continued to have her trademark sharp wit about her, she was getting around very slowly with the use of a walker. That said, she was 102 at the time so she was doing amazingly well.
Bernadine was quite the character and our conversations with her were always one of the hi-lights of our annual pilgrimage to the Firehole River. And despite that the questionable air quality in the front office, Bernadine was a breath of fresh air. She will be missed.
Thanks to “Jeff from Phoenix” for taking time to leave a comment and informing me of Bernadine’s passing. For those interested, here is a link to her obituary: https://www.dahlcares.com/obituaries/bernadine-johnson
Cheers to the Cat Lady of the Ho Hum, may she rest in peace.
