With a new year just beginning let’s look forward to many happy days to come. It has been a very difficult 2020! Families, businesses, first responders, churches, schools, all of us have gone through terrible times during this pandemic. We have lost many precious loved ones. Life will never be the same without those whom God called home this past year.

As this year ends and a new year begins we would like to pay tribute to the memory of an amazing woman. Our much loved Valley Home bus driver and friend to all! Bonnie, your legacy will live on forever!

Bonnie was the much loved sister to brother Fred and sisters Polly, Patty, Karen, and Mike. The Gatzman kids were very close and enjoyed growing up together in Valley Home. The Gatzman kids were very well known and much loved by everyone. They enjoyed many happy years as members of Valley Home 4H and were all alumni of Valley Home and Harold Pope School.

Years later Bonnie would become a devoted mother to three amazing children, Corey, Christy, and Cody. Many, many years later Bonnie would be blessed with her beloved grandchildren, Dillon, Madison, Kameron, Teagan, Keagan, Landon, and Layton. Bonnie cherished her time with each of them! Here in the Valley Home community Bonnie was tremendously loved and highly respected by all! Her laughter was contagious and her beautiful, brilliant smile was so radiant it would light up the entire room. Her students treasured everything about her. She loved her students and her Valley Home family with all her heart. Her biggest joy was making life better for those around her. Every child was special in Bonnie’s eyes. Bonnie considered children to be God’s most precious gift!

Bonnie made every day and every bus ride special. It didn’t matter whether a student rode her bus daily or just on field trips and game days ... each student was important to her. She touched the lives of her students in so many ways ... from pulling teeth, to treating bee stings, to helping a family in need, or a child needing a helping hand, Bonnie was always there.

Bonnie was well known for dressing up in character for every holiday. She created joy and happiness everywhere she went. The joy of knowing Bonnie brought many things into a child’s life. She instilled confidence, she built character, she taught our children to always show respect, and to always believe in themselves.

Bonnie loved to hunt. She would travel each year to Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. She would always share her bounty upon her return. The year that Bonnie was the Grand Marshal for the Valley Home Christmas Parade she decorated the school bus with tons of lights and placed her prized antlers on the front of her bus. With Christmas music blaring she honked the school bus horn at each spectator along the short parade route. What a great memory we have of that night!

Bonnie was known to her students as the problem solver. To them she could make everything better no matter what the situation was.

Bonnie was also a very successful cattle rancher. She and her husband Bruce both worked very hard and have cattle ranches in California and Nevada.

Bonnie treasured each of you! She felt blessed that you loved her back!

Our beautiful Bonnie, your smile will brighten our days, your zest for life will bring sunshine to your beloved Valley Home. Dance with the Angels sweet Bonnie, we will love you forever!

We honor your memory Bonnie Elizabeth Gellerman.